The Thirteen
by Leilia Greywauld
Summary: A tale you may not believe... *UPDATED*
1. Default Chapter

Greetings, fellow childer of Caine. I am called Leilia Greywauld, Gangrel of the seventh generation. I am the hunter of Sabbat and lupine alike. And I am here to tell a story. Not my own. Two centuries ago, my cousin Michaela vanished. And approximately two decades ago, she returned. None of us knew what had befallen her; indeed we believed her to have fallen to Final Death. Her sire and grandsire did not seem as curious as I would have imagined, so I became suspicious. One night, I asked Michaela where she had gone and what had happened to keep her from her people for so long. The story she related to me was a fantastic one. I myself did not believe it at first. It is a story of all Kindred, from Venture to Tzimisce. At times, circumstances and occurrences in her tale seemed preposterous, impossible. And so I sought to verify them myself. The record I have laid down here is the story not only of my cousin, but of her comrades of two centuries as well. The Cainite world has changed since the dawn of the new millennium, and now, perhaps, it is time for this story to be told. Many will not believe it. I knew this before I put pen to parchment. But I swear by Ennoia that all circumstances set down here are true. Make of them what you will.


	2. Chapter 1

Friday, 31 October, 1800, 11:45 p.m.  
a house deep in the Swiss Alps  
Alectz walked in the door having a conversation with herself.  
"It's Halloween! I should be out pranking! What am I doing HERE?! I'm here because the elders sent me here and the elders do know best. That and they can put my head through the icebox if I piss them off. What icebox? There must be a icebox here somewhere. Is there a kitchen? But then why would we have a kitchen? Maybe we could hang up human ham hocks in it. FUN!! Where's the kitchen?! Wait a minute, I want to go pranking! But the elders told me not to! The elders are big balls of cheese!! That's not very nice. What's wrong with cheese?"  
Luckily, no one else was around. Even Alectz herself wasn't all that sure how many voices in her head she was interacting with. As if that mattered. The house was utterly empty, save for a few small rodents that ran away when Alectz chased them. Her elders actually had sent her here, in one of their rare moments of collective coherency. But then they'd had the help of a few representatives of Clan Ventrue. Still, the elders had sent her here on a mission.  
Damned if she remembered what that mission was.  
Oh well, she'd figure that out later. Right now, the priority was pranking someone or something before midnight. And yes, it did have to be before midnight. It just did. That meant she only had 15 minutes left! One of her voices told her that there were supposed to be others coming, but they might not show up in time.  
Alectz tore around the mansion, desperately seeking a prank. She charged up the flight of stairs at the back of the front entrance room and nearly collided with a wall. She spun around in circles a couple times and fell over. When she finally got back to her feet, she found herself standing at the front of a long hallway with several big doors on both sides. Upon closer inspection of one of these doors, she found a small double nameplate to the left of it.  
Giovanni followed by Brujah.  
"Great combination!" Alectz laughed to the voices in her head. These must be the room assignments. Funny they put the clan instead of the name. She walked down the hall, looking at the nameplates as she went.   
Ventrue and Tremere.......Gangrel and Ravnos.......Assamite and Nosferatu.... At this point she reached the end of the hall (she was alerted to this by banging her knee on a small decorative table) and was forced to turn and come back down the other side. Toreador and Setite (that should be fun to watch)......Malkavian and Cappadocian.....Malkavian?!  
"My room!" Alectz shouted excitedly, throwing open the door. It was a rather large room, containing a symmetrical setup of a bed, small table, desk, chair, and closet on either side. There was one big window directly across from the doorway, currently open, but it was flanked by heavy black curtains clearly intended to block out the rays of the sun. It was much too neat. Alectz would have to fix that later. After she found a prank. She ran out into the hallway, her time running short. But she was immediately distracted by the fact that there was one door she hadn't gotten too. She spun around to look at the nameplate on the door to the left of her room. Tzimisce and Lasombra. Not a big surprise, they were the only two clans left, and both Sabbat. Hm. Only one of each clan. She would have to try to remember what was going on. It was probably really interesting......  
She spun around again and found herself facing the Venture and Tremere room. And suddenly her prank lay before her.   
She glanced around nervously and strained her senses to detect any movement downstairs. Luckily, there was none. This was, in a way, below her caliber of pranking, but with midnight only moments away, she didn't have a choice. She couldn't pass a whole Halloween without pranking someone!   
Alectz slid the Lasombra nameplate out of it's place. She then tiptoed across the hallway and did the same to the Tremere plate. Then, tucking Tremere under her arm, she pushed Lasombra in under Ventrue. She slinked back across the hall and slipped Tremere in Lasombra's former place. The placards now read Ventrue and Lasombra; Tzimisce and Tremere.   
Alectz laughed maniacally. This wasn't such a bad prank after all! The real fun would come from watching the heads of the Camarilla and the heads of the Sabbat having to share sleeping quarters. The prank that keeps on pranking. Best of them all.  
As midnight tolled, the Malkavian skipped down the stairs and deposited herself in the middle of the foyer, congratulating herself and her voices for a night well pranked.  
  



	3. Chapter 2

Saturday, 1 November, 1800, 12:01 a.m. the house in the Alps ".....we closed the factory in Vienna and reopened it in Geneva. All your funds are in this country to begin with, so there should be no lack of resources. And that's the end of the report." Richard snapped his notebook shut, quite pleased with himself. "And here we are." he added, mentally complimenting himself on his impeccable timing. "Ms. Pederston?" Carleigh Pederston was gazing out the opposite window. The sound of her name brought her back to reality. "Hm? Oh, I'm sorry Richard. You say we have enough money here?" The old ghoul flustered a bit. "Well, yes, but I also said-" "Fine then. That's all that matters." Carleigh smoothed down her french braided hair and checked her rouge in a hand mirror. "How many times must I tell you, Richard? As long as we have the money, everything else will take care of itself." she waved her right hand dissmissively. "You really must pay more attention." Richard's speechlessness was covered by the door on Carleigh's side of the carriage being opened by another ghoul. The Ventrue ancillae slid out of her seat, barely concealing a grin. Showing self-important ghouls their place was always an enjoyable pastime. That was the trouble with keeping ghouls for several centuries. It was so hard to control a servant who was older than she was. Not that she wasn't up to the challenge, mind you. But the fact remained that retainers should be either Embraced or destroyed after about eighty years. That was just all there was to it. The trouble of training a new one was so much more attractive then the prospect of dealing with one who assumed he knew everything about his job. One like Richard. Carleigh whipped a small black notebook and a pencil out of her purse. Flipping to a new page, she wrote in refined script a reminder to call her sire and ask him to eliminate Richard. Surely there were other decent ghouls about. "Will there be anything else, Ms. Pederston?" Richard's voice came from the other side of the carriage. Carleigh placed her notebook back in her purse and turned to face him. "No, thank you Richard. You need not stay in the country. Any further reports I make on this situation will be made directly to my sire. You may return to New York." Ignoring the poorly concealed insult, Richard bowed stiffly and climbed back into the carriage. The driver, who had opened the door for Carleigh, had already returned to his place. The luxurious black carriage sped off as Carleigh ascended the front steps of the house. The building itself had a great deal of old world charm, at least in Carleigh's opinion. It looked very much like one of the country manors she had seen on her last tour of England's lake country. The setting, however.... All those lovely old manors had been situated in a vast expanse of rolling green grasses and the occasional well-kept lake. This house was placed-or rather MISplaced- in a small clearing in the middle of a very untidy wilderness. She was eager to get inside. She entered the marble front hallway and was much more pleased with the interior of the place than the exterior. Very old world bijou, she thought. But there was no time to be admiring the decor. Carleigh re-extracted her notebook from her purse and flipped to the pages of notes given to her by her clan elders. As the Ventrue representative, she was to take charge of the situation as soon as all the other representatives arrived. In her hands was the description of their orders, the regulations as to the maintenance of this base, and all the other important details that had been decided on at the inter-clan council three weeks ago. The orders she had to administer bore the weight of the signatures of the eldest elder of every clan. Methuselahs, some of them. The Ventrue could almost have laughed out loud from sheer excitement. This was going to be her career maker! Carleigh Pederston, leader of the clans! Oh yes, that had a nice ring to it. Imagine, power and influence in every clan. This was what most Ventrue dreamed of! And it was all hers. "I'll be prince of New York yet!" She hissed triumphantly to herself. Not that she had triumphed over anyone yet. She still hadn't met the other members of this coterie. It was only a little after midnight, and even though midnight was supposed to be the deadline, the Ventrue were the only clan that seemed to have any sense of timing. Carleigh spotted a nicely sized sitting room off to one side of the staircase. She went in there to review her notes and wait for the others, not noticing the quietly cackling figure at the top of the stairs watching her. 


	4. Chapter 3


    Saturday, 1 November, 1800 12:05 a.m.
    outside the house
    The horse's hooves skidded on the gravel of the road as its rider jerked it to an abrupt stop.
    "This must be the place...." the rider murmured. She swung down from the animal's back and led it to the fence surrounding the porch.
    "Well I don't feel like looking for a stable, so you're just going to have to stay here." she said to the horse, tying its reigns around one of the bars. She then stepped back, looking skeptically at the leather strips.
    "You could break that, couldn't you? And you will break that as soon as I go into the house, won't you?" she eyed the horse, who for some reason refused to make eye contact with her. "Well, we can't have that. Where am I going to get another horse up here?"
    That said, she touched the horse's nose right above his halter. "Now this won't hurt one bit as long as you don't move." She very gently brushed the horse's nose down in the direction of the halter. The skin moved gently under her fingers, allowing itself to be eased over the halter and reattached to the horse's face on the other side.
    "There. Now, if you stay put, you won't hurt yourself. If you do...." she shrugged, her voice trailing away. "Well, I'll leave it up to you."
    She detached her satchel from the horse's saddle and tossed it over her shoulder, sweeping her long silver white hair out of the way. Just as she was about to ascend the steps, the front door opened.
    Before her stood a girl who looked about her own age (not that that actually meant anything) in a conservative but fashionable blue dress and a longish braid running down her back. The girl glanced around, saw the horse, and then saw its rider at the foot of the steps. After about a microsecond of inspection, she crinkled her nose in disgust at the new arrival.
    "Let me guess....Tzimisce?"
    The other girl gave a snide smile full of way too sharp white teeth. "Let ME guess...Toreador?" she retorted.
    Carleigh's eyes narrowed in affrontation. "Ventrue. And it might behoove you to be a little more polite."
    "ME?!" the Tzimisce exclaimed incredulously.
    But the Ventrue girl ignored her. "My name is Carleigh Pederston. The leaders of our clans have put me in charge of this operation. And there will be no politics in this house, Sabbat, Camarilla, or otherwise."
    "Uh-HUH." the Tzimisce rolled her eyes. "I don't care about politics one way or the other. Just tell me there's a library here."
    Carleigh stiffened. "I believe there is ample selection of literature in the sitting room."
    The Tzimisce arched a forked eyebrow. "Okay...well then..." she started up the steps a second time, only to find Carleigh standing in her way again.
    "Is there something you want, Ventrue?" the Tzimisce was taller an probably stronger than this girl, but if she knew those senile elders who'd put this together, there was probably some sort of rule against murdering the other reps.
    "We will be living and working together for some time, Tzimisce." Carleigh mimicked the address. "So you might as well tell me your name."
    The Tzimisce resisted the urge to spit. Ridiculous pomp. "Dvorak. Carid Dvorak. Now will you get out of my way?"
    "Russian?"
    "Austrian. Move."
    Carleigh obediently stood aside. Carid brushed past her and moved in the direction of the lighted sitting room.
    Carleigh shook her head. No one said being a leader was easy. She pulled out her notebook and turned to the section entitled "Members".
    She had formulated this in the sitting room a few minutes ago. A section of her notebook to keep information on the other representatives in. One page for each clan/person. She flipped to the page headed 'Tzimisce'. Under it she wrote 'Carid Dvorak, Austrian' Once she got to know the Tzimisce a little better, this page would have information about Carid's personality, strengths, and most importantly, weaknesses. Notes were such useful things.
    As she was writing, a small black carriage pulled up. Carleigh glanced up in time to see a slender figure climb out of the carriage, pause for a moment to say something to someone still inside, then gather up her bag and close the door even as the carriage began to move away.
    The figure-a young looking girl- turned towards Carleigh. She wore a long plain black dress and carried an even plainer black bag.
    Carleigh smiled. Tremere. Finally, an ally.
    With some clans, such as Gangrel or Nosferatu, you can tell their members at a glance. Normally, Tremere were not among the instantly identifiable clans. But Carleigh had never seen anyone who looked more like a Tremere than this girl. It wasn't just the clothing and accessories. Her skin was pale, her eyes and hair jet black, and she wore a small pair of wire-rimmed glasses. But of course, the most distinguishing characteristic was the long streak of perfectly white hair reaching from her left brow all the way down to the end of her long ponytail; a shocking contrast to the black of the rest of her hair.
    "Good evening." Carleigh said pleasantly as the girl came to the foot of the steps.
    "Morning by now, I believe." the girl smiled just as pleasantly.
    "I believe you're right." Carleigh returned the smile. "Carleigh Pederston, Clan Ventrue." she introduced herself.
    "Amaranth Polgaran, Clan Tremere."
    No kidding, Carleigh thought. Out loud, she said, "May I compliment you on your timing. You've just missed the Tzimisce representative." she said, indicating the sitting room through the still open front door.
    Amaranth nodded solemnly. "We will meet soon enough. I am prepared to cooperate with him, as per my orders. I understand that politics must be put aside for this venture...."
    "...but age old enemies might have a hard time with that." Carleigh finished for her. Amaranth nodded in agreement. "I understand how you feel." Carleigh sighed. "My elders expect me to take charge of this whole operation on my own." she shook her head helplessly. "I need a suitable partner to bring this kind of group under control. Can I count on your help, Amaranth?"
    Amaranth half-smiled. "I think so." Perfect.
    "Thank you. I can't tell you how good it is to find an ally." Carleigh smiled, turning to go inside. "Would you like to go have a drink?"
    "Not at the moment, thank you. Oh, and please call me Amy. I realize my given name is a mouthful."
    "Of course." Carleigh smiled. "Excuse me, there's something I want to attend to." That of course meant she wanted to go write her synopsis of the new arrival in the 'Tremere' page of her notebook.
    "Certainly. I think I'm going to stay out here for a few more minutes. Such a lovely night."
    "Isn't it? Well, do excuse me." Carleigh repeated, disappearing into the house.
    Amy stood there looking after her for a few more seconds. After Carleigh had been gone for a good minute, she allowed herself a light chuckle. This was beyond perfect. Whoever thought the Ventrue would do Amy's work for her? Certainly, it was common knowledge that in the absence of any other Tremere, a Tremere's first move was to make friends with -an subsequently manipulate- the nearest Ventrue. Power behind the throne. that had always been the role of her clan. Of course, there was always the possibility that the Ventrue had been trying to take Amy in by making her think she had won. But no. That was something Amy would expect from another Tremere. The Blue Bloods always seemed to think that everyone wanted to be their lackey. That was why the usual Tremere formula had worked so well for so many centuries. And since Carleigh had been so good as to make the approach, the rest of this was going to be smooth sailing.
    Amy gazed up at the stars. She knew that she also had the Tzimisce and eventually the Assamite to worry about. Well, hopefully she would have her own room here. One she could put numerous magical wards around.
    


	5. Chapter 4

Saturday, 1 November 1800, 12:10 a.m.  
Eastern Cliffs, Swiss Alps  
  
The low howl that sang through the night air was anything but out of place in the forests surrounding the mansion. In it's own right, the house was huge, but when seen amid the sheer volume of alpine forest around it, the house and the clearing it sat in seemed tiny and isolated.  
Which was just the impression Michaela Greywauld was getting as she looked down on it from her perch atop a small outcropping of rock jutting from the tree covered cliff about half a mile from the mansion. Though she grudgingly admitted that it was a perfect location in which to base these operations, it pained her to see such a blemish on the beautiful landscape.  
Wow, what a view! Can we stay here today?!  
Michaela smiled slightly, not needing to look to where the 'voice' came from.  
"Sorry, Odin. You and Canis can stay if you want, but I have to go down there." she nodded towards the clearing. She shifted from a predatorial crouch to a relaxed sitting position with her legs dangling off the cliff.  
Why?  
Because Desmona told her to, that's why. Another 'voice' cut in. She told you that before we left. Can't you retain information for more than six seconds, oh great thunder god?  
Meanie. You're just jealous 'cause you couldn't come up with a more creative name than Canis Lupis.  
Oh, go chase a bird or something, Odin!  
Canis turned away from Odin momentarily, allowing him the opportunity to chomp her hind leg. An opportunity which he took. He grabbed her leg in his mouth and amid her angry howls, attempted to knock her over. She twisted around and bit into his ear. He yelped in pain, allowing Canis to free her leg and kick him over. He sprawled on his back and she pounced on him.   
Normally, Michaela wouldn't have wasted any time jumping into the fray. But tonight, she ignored the two canines, growling playfully and rolling each other in the dirt behind her. Her thought were miles away. Her grandsire, Desmona, had indeed sent her here. She didn't particularly want to think about the briefing the Alpha had given her. But she couldn't seem to help it. She was being sent on a covert mission. To join with other clans in protecting Kindred in general. Michaela rolled her eyes at that thought. The biggest thing that Kindred had to fear was themselves. Their sects, their politics, their pointless Jyhad. Doing nothing but making themselves weaker and making it all the easier for the Society of Leopold to weed them out and slaughter them all. But then, that was why they were doing this, wasn't it? To force the clans to band together against the mortal foe.  
That was why Michaela had been chosen. For her deep seated hatred of human kind and her belief in Kindred unity. But it was there that Desmona had grossly overestimated her. Oh, she hated humanity, all right. That wasn't it. But Kindred unity? Sure, it would be nice. Sure, it would be practical and safer and generally BETTER. But that didn't mean she believed in it.   
Michaela loved her own clan. But she never ceased to be disappointed in all the others. They were so much like humans it made her sick. Petty, power hungry, unable to compromise. She had lived almost three centuries, and in that time she had seen countries fall to ruin, empires split into fragments, and human beings doing the most atrocious acts of pointless aggression unto their own species. And the Kindred were no better. Here, instead of moors and Christians, you had Ventrue and Lasombra. Or Tzimisce and Tremere. Or ANYTHING and Setite. She was no Brujah Idealist. She knew damn well that unity would never be possible until people could accept the creature that didn't look or think like them. It was no secret that that was impossible for the damnable kine. But if the Gangrel could let go of the human yoke of bigotry and live in relative peace with anything that didn't threaten them, what was wrong with the other clans?  
She would never understand. But part of her told her this was worth a shot. While every other part (including her common sense) told her it was utter madness and she would be lucky to escape from this powder keg with her life. But duty was duty. She would protect her clan no matter what, and this had the potential to protect her clan quite a bit. And in any case, they would be going up against the Society, and any harm Michaela could do to them she would do it as thoroughly as possible.  
Mika?  
Michaela glanced to her left. Sometime during her reverie, Odin and Canis had stopped fighting and now the female wolf was at her side.  
Are you alright? Canis asked, concerned.  
"I'll be fine." Michaela said, standing. "I'm going down now."  
Great! Let's jump! Odin's cheerful yips cut in.  
"No." Michaela shook her head. "I have to go alone. We're not supposed to bring allies. I don't feel like starting a fight with whatever Ventrue cactus-up-his-ass they decided to send here."  
Alright. Canis agreed before Odin could protest. Take care of yourself.  
"I will. Can you two get back to Selendrile all right?"  
Sure we could. But I think we'll stick around these woods for a few days instead.  
"I said I'll be fine, Canis."  
We know! Odin said. But just in case. Plus, I these look like fun woods!"  
"Hn. Fine." Michaela allowed herself a half smile before turning to go.  
Should you need us, just howl. Canis reminded her.  
"I will." Michaela nodded.   
She then took a flying leap off the cliff. She hit the almost vertical ground running and raced down the cliff with all her speed, barely avoiding the various trees in her path.  
It was fun.  
  



	6. Chapter 5

Saturday, 1 November 1800 12:10 a.m.  
North cliffs; Swiss Alps  
The Assamite cut an impressive figure. She stood with her arms crossed, scimitar at her waist, looking down over the clearing and the house. All while silhouetted against the moon. A Toreador photographer would have sold his right hand for a chance at the shot.  
Not that the subject of said shot really gave a damn. She just stood, motionless as a statue, looking down over her new home. It was no Alamut, that much was for sure.   
Though it was not for her to question the elders, the Assamite- Sharma, as she was called- could not help but wonder at the objective of this mission. Naturally, she would complete her task here to her utmost ability, as a matter of honor. Her elders had sent her, and she lived to serve them, of course.  
But really. 'For the defense of all Kindred'? Since when were the Assamites concerned with the safety of any clan but their own? Theoretically, though, an alliance with other clans would make the Assamites safer from outside threat.  
Still, it was unheard of for the Assamites to stoop to an alliance with the kafir! You might as well be saying that the clan was incapable of defending itself. Sharma gritted her teeth. It was not for her to question. She did not know because she did not need to know. When she needed to know, she would. That was the Assamite way. It was almost traitorous for her to harbor these doubts. She would trust the wisdom of the elders. And she would fight forever for the glory of Haqim, following whatever path the Eldest lay before her. Just as she had always done.  
A small bit of movement caught her attention and she looked to the right. A wolflike figure scrambling down the face of a nearby cliff.  
Not a lupine, though it somewhat resembled one. Gangrel. Of course.  
Seeing one of the other members of this group brought the reality of Sharma's situation back to her. She was going to have to co-exist and even work with an odd collection of kafir. And not kill them. She sighed heavily, turning to face the moon. She could wait here a little longer before going down....  
  



	7. Chapter 6

Saturday, 1 November 1800, 12:30 a.m.  
outside the house  
"Wow...." Benjamin murmured, gazing out the window of his carriage. "Well, it's a lovely building, but a bit too neo-classical for my tastes."  
"Perhaps you'll be able to do something with it, sir." Bradford said from the other side of the carriage.  
"Oh, come on Bradford. We're not in the presence of any elders. You can call me Ben."  
"Well, here we are." Nigel, the other ghoul accompanying Ben, announced.  
Ben sighed heavily, eyes focused on his hands even as the driver came around to open the door.  
"Ben?" Bradford leaned forward. "Is everything okay?"  
Ben sighed. "I-I guess I'm just nervous. I mean, this is supposed to be a coalition to fight the Society of Leopold and stuff like that."  
"Yes?"  
"So...why send me? I'm not that much of a fighter...."  
"That's only one part of it, Benny." Nigel said, placing a reassuring hand on the Toreador's shoulder. "It's also for spying, infiltration, research...and even though they didn't say it at the council, inter-clan politics as well. Nobody expects you to turn into a Brujah for this."  
Ben shuddered at the suggestion. "I know that...but still. I bet you anything a lot of them are gonna be warriors." Ben slid out of the carriage, followed by his two companions.  
"Be that as it may." Bradford crossed his arms. "You were chosen by the entire clan, Ben. Obviously, your talents were exactly what they were looking for in the representative of the Clan Toreador." the ghoul smiled at Ben's still apprehensive expression. "In short, they believe in you, Benny. And so do we."  
Ben felt tears well up in his eyes. He threw his arms around Bradford's waist and hugged him as tightly as he could. The ghoul hugged him back.   
After a few seconds, Ben let go and stood back. He cleared his throat, trying to get around the forming lump in it. "Um....Brad...Nigel?"  
"Yes?" Nigel answered, as they both turned their attention to Ben.  
"Um....listen...I just wanted to say, well....You guys have both been so great to me...I swear I never could've made it through the past three decades without you. I know I'm not too good at taking care of myself sometimes, and you guys have been so wonderful about taking care of me...you never complain about me being useless like some of the other ghouls do. You guys....you're the only ones who ever really understood me. And I'm really gonna miss you." Ben wiped away some of the tears that had welled up in his eyes as he'd been talking.  
"Aw, Ben....you've been great too." Bradford smiled, a lump in his own throat. "Lots of vamps your age treat us like property. Not you. And you don't have to worry about this assignment at all. I know everyone's gonna love you just as much as we do."  
Nigel couldn't think of anything to say, so he just hugged Ben. Brad joined and made it a big, two-minute long, group hug.  
"This is so sweet my fangs are rotting....." Mika Greywauld muttered from behind a nearby tree. She was waiting for the Torrie to finish saying goodbye to his ghouls so she could sneak around the back.  
"I'll see you guys again, I promise." Ben choked as his ghouls got back in the carriage.  
"Of course you will." Nigel smiled. "You think you can get rid of us this easily?  
"No." Ben giggled a little. "Goodbye!" he called, waving as the carriage pulled away.  
He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the tears of blood off his face and hands. It wouldn't do to go in there crying.  
Bradford was right. He would just think of this as an opportunity to make some new friends. Most Toreadors refused to associate with any other clan but the Ventrue on the grounds that it was beneath them, but Ben didn't feel that way at all. There was nothing wrong with the other clans. They just thought differently, and in some cases, looked differently. No big deal. There was beauty in everything. There was even beauty in the Nosferatu, if you just knew where to look.  
"Hi!"  
Ben jumped about three feet in the air. He spun around to face-ironically enough- a Nosferatu.   
"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."  
"Oh...that's okay....just a little jumpy tonight, I guess." Ben picked up the box of paintbrushes he had dropped. Luckily, it hadn't opened.  
"Wow, that's a lot of stuff....." the Nosferatu eyed the large pile of luggage behind Ben.  
"Yeah...I guess I should've let my ghouls take it in....but I might've lost too much blood if that goodbye had lasted any longer." Ben smiled sadly. He mentally reprimanded himself for freaking out when the Nosferatu had spoken. This guy seemed really nice; Ben didn't want him to think he was a superficial about the whole ugliness curse as most of the Toreador were.  
"My name's Seldes, by the way." the Nosferatu extended a talon-like hand.  
"I'm Ben. Nice to meet you." Ben smiled, taking Seldes' hand with no hesitation whatsoever.  
Seldes was an interesting looking Nosferatu. Of course, none of them really looked normal. He seemed to be about three feet tall. Of course, he might've been much taller. Ben had no way of knowing, since the Nosferatu was apparently crouched on the ground, his knees at his chin. But that odd position seemed to be the way he stood. It looked uncomfortable, but then Ben was speaking from the perspective of someone with a straight spine. The crouch didn't impede Seldes extending his hand at all; his arms were considerably longer than they should've been. Ben could almost picture him walking like a gorilla, using his hands to propel him on the ground.  
"Do you need any help?" Seldes asked as Ben tried to collect all his bags and his easel at once.  
"Oh, no, not if it's too much trouble." Ben said, unable to imagine the other being able to carry anything the size of the bags.  
"It's no trouble." Seldes assured him, and, to Ben's surprise, stood up.  
At full height he was about Ben's height, and his arms looked even more out of proportion. The Nosferatu winced a little as he straightened, and Ben himself winced at the sound of Seldes' spine cracking.  
"Ow. Are you okay?" Ben asked, concerned.  
Seldes rolled his shoulders as if getting used to the position. "I'm fine. Don't worry, I do this all the time."  
"Um...okay....thank you." Ben said as Seldes helped him pick up his stuff.  
They carried the stuff as far as the foot of the stairs in the front hall. They decided to deposit Ben's stuff there, along with Seldes' one bag, and worry about getting it all upstairs after they got their room assignments. Then they found the kitchen. And the icebox full of blood decanters.  
"I didn't know there was type V blood." Ben remarked, looking over the selection.  
"Um..I don't think that stands for blood type." Seldes commented, looking up from beneath Ben's arm.  
"Well, there's A right there...." Ben pointed at a higher shelf.  
"Actually, I think they're marked for the people with feeding restrictions. V for Ventrue."  
"And A for Assamite. Okay, I see." Ben nodded. "Then what are the rest of these?"  
"I don't know. Let's find out."  
Ben and Seldes each grabbed a container of unmarked blood and sat down at the kitchen table. They sat, drinking in silence for a few minutes.  
Ben set his bottle down on the table. "Seldes?"  
"Hm?"  
"Can I ask you something?"  
"Sure."  
"What do you think about all this?"  
"About what?"  
"You know....this." Ben gestured around him. "All the clans trying to work together like this. After centuries of the Jyhad, do you think a bunch of Kindred from so many different clans can all just get along?"  
Seldes reached past his knees-he was back in his crouched position on the chair-and placed his own bottle on the table. "Do I think all the clans can just get along? No. Do I think members of the clans can all get along? Yes."  
Ben stared in confusion. "But...isn't it the same thing?"  
"Not at all. A clan as you're talking about it is a political unit. Political units have separate goals, separate functions, separate broad agendas. An injury done by one member of one clan to one member of another clan must be forever remembered by both the clans." Seldes sighed. "If you think of someone in terms of 'clan', you place on them every wrong ever done by any member of their clan. Look at the Tremere and the Tzimisce. Nearly a millennium ago, Tremere diablerized a Tzimisce Methuselah in order to gain immortality. Tremere is dead. The Methuselah is dead. But their descendants carry on the blood feud even today. Most Tremere have never been injured in any way by a Tzimisce and never had anyone they know injured by Tzimisce either. But they still hate Tzimisce just because they're Tzimisce.'  
"But..." Ben paused. "Isn't that right? Tremere stole immortality...naturally the whole clan is going to feel affronted."  
"Ben, it would be like a Gangrel killing you because some other Toreador had run over her foot ten years ago on the other side of the planet." That put it in better perspective for Benjamin. "The clans can't let go. That's why the CLANS could never get along. But the people? Now that's a whole other matter."  
"How so?"  
"If you look at someone as a person, not as a clan, then you have a whole different perspective. I mean, there are so many stereotypes attached to clans. Toreadors, for example. I might expect you to be a useless, whiny, pathetic yet artistic piece of fluff. I also might choose to dislike you right off the bat, because I've had numerous experiences of Toreadors avoiding me and scoffing at me simply because I was ugly. But you didn't do that, did you?"  
Ben shook his head.  
"Exactly. Because you aren't those other Toreadors. You aren't like them. But I never would have known that if I hadn't given you the chance to show it. That's what happens when you attach clan stereotypes to someone. You never find out what they're really like because you're too busy thinking about what you expect them to be like."  
"I think I see what you mean....that's why you said we could get along. As individuals, not clans, you mean?"  
Seldes nodded. "Personally, I think if we all approach each other as people, with no pre-expectations, then we can all get along just fine."  
Ben smiled. "That's kind of what I think....you can't define a person by their clan or their nationality. Everybody's different, and everybody's beautiful, in one way or another."  
Seldes grinned, revealing a mouth full of fangs. "I like that. A very artistic point of view."  
"Of course!" Ben grinned back.  
  



	8. Chapter 7

  
  
  
Saturday, 1 November 1800 12:59 a.m.  
At a fork in the path up to the house  
Sugar Kelly reigned her horse to a slow walk, giving her the freedom to rearrange her long skirt without falling on her face. Once comfortable situated again, she clicked her tongue and urged the horse-whose name was Jack- forward. She patted his neck and promised him a carrot as soon as they arrived.  
Jack was such a good horse. Sure, Sugar could probably run just as fast as he could, if not faster, but could she carry all her things on her own? Considering she carried everything she owned with her wherever she went, probably not. Not that she owned much, mind you, but there was enough of it that it would be a burden to deal with without Jack.  
They came out of the trees onto what was apparently the main road up the mountain. Sugar could have come this way before, but the winding dirt road was easier on Jack, even if it did make them late. Oh well, no party really started until she got there anyway.  
But it seemed they no longer had a choice as to their route The mountain path disappeared where Jack stood.  
"Well, come on Jack." Sugar said, prodding him forward. "It won't be long now, and you can have a nice long rest when we get there, 'kay?" Wasn't that the truth. The elder who sent her had told her that she wouldn't be leaving this place for a while. And a thought like that was a hell of a blow to a Ravnos.  
There had better be some interesting people there to make up for all this.  
Suddenly, Jack started. Sugar glanced around, searching for possible threat. But there was nothing.  
"What is it, boy?" she stroked Jack's neck, trying to calm him. The horse was obviously hearing something undesirable. After a few seconds, Sugar thought she could make out the sound of....hoofbeats?  
She had no clue what it was....for a few minutes.  
Then she and Jack found themselves bathed in a bright light. Jack panicked and whatever was creating the bright beam of light swerved to avoid them. Jack galloped onto the side of the road and it was all Sugar could do to hold on to him, never mind slow him down.  
She had almost managed to bring him back under control when a loud crash and an even louder shriek made the horse buck up and throw Sugar to the forest floor. Jack ran in circles for a few minutes, then stopped, still jittery but unsure of what to do without his master.  
Sugar jumped up and immediately turned to inflict a violent death upon whoever or whatever had done this to her and her horse.  
Unfortunately, there was someone on the other side of the road who was equally pissed off.  
"My CARRIAGE! Damn you, what the hell are you doing with your damnable beast in the middle of the road?!" a young girl with curly blonde hair screamed in Sugar's general direction.  
"What in the name of all that is holy IS that thing?!" Sugar screamed back. "And what do you think YOU'RE doing, coming up like the hounds of hell are on your tail?! Or are YOU the hound of hell?!"  
"Accursed gypsy!" the girl snarled.  
Sugar spit in the dirt. "Good guess. I don't know what you are. And guess what? I don't care either. Have fun extracting your hell bound chariot from around that tree." Sugar smirked, swinging up onto Jack's back. "I'll let you go this time. Let's just say you're lucky my horse wasn't hurt." With that, she spurred Jack forward and they disappeared around a bend in the road.  
There were not enough words in the English language for 'red' that would have effectively described the face of the girl with the car. She stood there motionless, immobilized and speechless with utter fury. How DARE that gypsy speak to her that way?! And her car! For a moment the girl considered sending a few dozen battalions of animated shadows after that gypsy. And her stupid beast.  
The very mental image made her feel better. 'Alright, Courtney, calm down'. she told herself. There was only one place this road led to, so she would undoubtedly see the gypsy again. And long, drawn out periods of torturous fear of death was ever so much more horrible than simply being killed outright.  
Oh yes. She would have her revenge.  



	9. Chapter 8

  
Saturday, 1 November 1800 1:30 a.m.  
a bit further down the aforementioned road  
  
"So that's how I'm going to take over the world!" the small Chinese girl chirped happily.  
"With.......hamsters?" her companion arched an eyebrow.  
"Nononono!" the girl exclaimed. "By diablerizing the Ventrue and then taking all their money. Weren't you listening, Maria?"  
"Well....I was trying to....but you did say something about hamsters." Maria Giovanni looked confused.  
"I said I wanted to get a hamster. I also want to get a salamander. But that's after I take over the world."  
"Oh......is that it.... You'll forgive me for saying so, Mei, but you don't seem like the type of person who would try to take over the world."  
"I...don't?" the Cappadocian looked on the verge of tears.  
"Well........I don't know....maybe you could... If you gave everyone something and made them owe you a favor...." the Giovanni suggested.  
"But...I wanna diablerize them!" Mei sobbed, looking every inch like a five year old throwing a temper tantrum.  
Maria shook her head. Why had she agreed to travel with this girl? Oh, right. A breakthrough in Giovanni/Cappadocian politics. If it worked out, the clans wouldn't be trying to kill each other anymore. Plus, she and Mei both being representatives of their respective clans, they needed to learn to get along.  
"Oh well!" Mei stopped sobbing as quickly as she had begun. "I have a sudden craving for ice cream."  
"Ice cream?" Maria arched an eyebrow. "You can eat food?"  
"I think so....."  
"Well, okay....."  
Mei yawned. "Do you know any good bedtime stories?"  
"Um...not really."  
"Didn't your parents ever tell you bedtime stories?" Mei asked.  
"Not really...."  
"Why not?'  
"I....don't know. They were too busy, I guess."  
"That's sad. We have to find someone to tell us both bedtime stories when we get there!" Mei smiled happily.  
"Um...okay." Maria attempted to return the smile. The Cappadocian's attitude baffled her. A clan obsessed with death...you wouldn't think she'd be this cheerful. Quite an anomaly. But she was a sweet little girl. Literally little. Mei couldn't have been embraced at any older than eleven. She was small, cute, and from what Maria knew of her so far, very nationalistic. She made a mental note to say only good things about China.  
She cast a sidelong glance at Mei, who had become engrossed in watching an owl in a tree the carriage was passing by. The girl acted like nothing was going on upstairs. That alone was enough to put Maria on her guard. People who couldn't tell right from left often had far deeper levels of understanding at their disposal. Levels of wisdom and secrets that most Kindred could only dream of. She would be careful to keep an eye on this fluffy little girl. There were more ways to hold power over someone than by force, politics, or even money, as the Giovanni did. There were other ways. Mei might just be another fluffy little child who never really caught on to the bad side of Kindred existence. Then again, she might hold the keys to the secrets of the universe.  
Maria would stay on her guard- and on Mei's good side- just in case.  
  



	10. Chapter 9

  
Saturday, 1 November 1800, 2:35 a.m.  
The library/sitting room.  
  
Carleigh glanced at the large grandfather clock standing in the corner. Her brow wrinkled in annoyance. She hadn't expected everyone to be perfectly prompt, but this was ridiculous! She had been waiting here for over two hours!  
She glanced around the room, making a quick mental list of who was already there and who was missing. At least everyone was in the same room now.  
Carid, the Tzimisce, was sitting in one corner of the room with her pointed nose stuck in a book. She hadn't said a word or even moved, except to turn pages, since the others had come filtering in. She hadn't even looked up when Amy finally came inside.   
Speaking of the Tremere, what in the world had she been doing out there for so long? Carleigh had already been long done writing her assessment of Amy when the girl finally came into the sitting room. Were stars really all that fascinating to the sorcerer clan? In any case, Amy had brought a book of her own in that black bag of hers and was currently reading in a armchair to Carleigh's left. Incidentally, they were both as far away from Carid's corner as possible without hiding in a corner themselves.  
Across from them was a long sofa currently occupied by the Toreador and Nosferatu. They seemed to have hit it off, which was a great surprise to Carleigh. She had expected the Toreador to avoid someone so...lacking in physical beauty. But no, the two had been talking quietly-probably so as not to disturb Carid or Amy- ever since they had come in. They both seemed quite friendly. Which was more than Carleigh would say for the person they carted in with them.  
The Gangrel--who after a few moments of being bothered had divulged that her name was Michaela Greywauld--was standing by the window in the corner looking uncomfortable. Apparently she--and it had taken Carleigh a few moments to decipher the gender of the new arrival-had tried to sneak in the back door, which incidentally led straight into the kitchen. Whereupon Ben and Seldes had caught her dragged her in here with them. She looked less than happy to be in a room full of people.  
Carleigh stole a glance at the Ravnos who had wandered in a few minutes ago. Sugar Kelly was wearing a peasant style top and a patchwork skirt that dragged on the floor. She didn't look much like the gypsies Carleigh had seen before, what with her blonde hair and blue eyes. But then, you never knew with that clan. She hadn't talked much either; she'd been staring at the painting on the wall ever since she came in. Heaven knew what she found so interesting about a desert landscape.  
And heaven also knew how she managed to remain so.... unaware of the eyes burning holes through her back. Courtney Hamilton, Clan Lasombra, was sitting on the other side of the room doing nothing but glare at Sugar's back. Carleigh certainly would have liked to know the story behind that.  
Next to Courtney's chair was a small loveseat. Currently it's only occupant was Maria Giovanni. She and the Cappadocian representative had been traveling together (another shock to Carleigh's system), and apparently had picked Courtney up along the way. Something had happened to the Lasombra's carriage, it seemed.  
Carleigh glanced around the room in search of the small Cappadocian. Mei was standing by the huge bookshelves, examining the titles. In Carleigh's opinion, the little girl was venturing far too close to the silent Tzimisce. Mei had been a surprise. All the representatives so far seemed to have been Embraced in their late teens or early twenties, but Mei had said she was only ten or eleven at the time of her Embrace. She was a cute little thing, but she didn't seem too bright. At least that was the impression Carleigh got.  
The Ventrue laid her notebook down on her lap and sighed heavily.   
"Well, let's see now." she said to the assembly in general, managing to get most of the eyes in the room turned to her. "Who are we still missing..." she looked around, as if this were the first time she had thought of this. "We're missing Brujah....Setite....Assamite...."  
"No way!" Sugar interrupted. "The ASSAMITES sent someone?!" she exclaimed incredulously.  
"Yes." Carleigh said as icily as she could manage. She didn't like to be interrupted.  
Unfortunately, her efforts were lost on the Ravnos. "Whoa....that's gonna be interesting...." she muttered, before turning her attention back to the painting.  
"Well then...." Carleigh said stiffly. "The only other is Malkavian."  
Carleigh felt her skirt rustle a little. It felt almost like a cat brushing up against her. She glanced down. No cat. She looked back up. Then felt it again. She looked down one more time.  
Her gaze moved down to her knees...her skirt...the face between her feet....her feet....  
Wait....face between her feet?  
Carleigh looked back between her black high heels. Her brain didn't seem to be effectively processing the image of a head sticking out from under her skirt and lying neatly between the shoes. That is, not until....  
"Hi." the face said.  
Carleigh's scream rattled the windows.  
The entire room collectively looked up abruptly and dropped anything they had been holding. And in the Gangrel's case, jumped on top of the grandfather clock and bristled like a scared cat.  
Carleigh jumped up and ran to the other side of the room in a panic, not even caring that Carid had stood up and actually moved forward.  
The Tzimisce stared at the scene for a moment. Then burst out laughing.  
"I-Is this FUNNY to you?!" an affronted and terrified Carleigh exclaimed.  
Carid grinned another one of those freakish pointed teeth smiles. "I guess the Malk's not missing after all."  
Meanwhile, the head-which actually was attached to a body- slid out from under the chair and jumped to her feet, spinning in midair to face Carleigh.   
"Hi! I'm Alectz! Did I scare you?!"   
No one answered.   
Alectz looked around the room, a maniacal grin on her face. Finally, her gaze lighted upon Michaela, who was still perched on top of the clock with her fur standing on end.  
"Hey.....you're really furry."  
Sugar, witnessing this from the other side of the room, surpressed a giggle. It was true enough. The Gangrel was female, according to her name, but she wore only a pair of ripped, worn out pants. Which was really no problem, since her entire upper body-and most of her lower body, from what they could see of her legs- was covered in grayish fur, leaving only her forearms, neck, and face virtually hairless. Oddly enough, though, her hair was brown. And short. You never expected Gangrel to have short hair.  
The Malkavain had only voiced what everyone in the room thought the minute they saw Michaela.  
From her crouch on top of the clock, the Gangrel glared at Alectz. Then, in a movement no one really saw too well, she pounced off the clock and landed by the door to the room.   
Mika swung the door open and made to get out of there. She really didn't need this. First cramming everyone into that claustrophobic little room and now loud noises? It was not to be borne. She stepped out in the front hall and almost collided with a figure in white.  
Both of them stepped back and out of each others' way, not saying a word. Mika spent about two seconds sizing the person up. Female, dark hair and skin, curved sword at waist, probable hidden weapons, difficulty to kill: medium to difficult. That pretty much covered all she ever needed to know about someone. Still, it was a welcome change from the others she had met. Difficulty to kill: minimum to none. Except for maybe the Tzimisce.  
Two yards away, Sharma was doing the exact same thing. Gender unknown, obviously Gangrel, no weapons, great physical strength, watch for claws. Do not attempt to challenge this one at close range.   
"Assamite, I presume?" Carleigh's voice broke through the tense silence.  
Sharma didn't react. She kept her eyes on the Gangrel.  
"Excuse me?" Carleigh stepped forward.  
Mika opted not to challenge the Assamite. There would be plenty of time to test her skills--and Michaela's own--later on. She lowered her hands and stepped back a pace.  
Sharma saw the Gangrel stand down. Not retreat, just assume a non-threatening position. This one would be a pleasure to challenge at a later date. But for the moment she had best deal with this irritating blonde.  
Carleigh was becoming seriously annoyed. Finally, the Assamite looked at her.  
"Thank you." she muttered. Then aloud, "I am Carleigh Pederston, Clan Ventrue. And you are?"  
Sharma tensed almost indistinguishably--she hoped.  
"Well?" Carleigh sighed. She was getting a bit tired of these strong, silent types.  
"Sharma Hassam. Clan Assamite." Sharma said gruffly.  
"See, that wasn't so hard...." Carleigh murmured under her breath.  
"Can I play with your sword?"  
Sharma spun around, scimitar suddenly out. And pointed at the neck of the Malkavian.  
Alectz poked the tip of the sword, not hard enough to draw blood. She grinned at the Assamite. The girl had a scowl as hard as steel, but Alectz could always tell when she was confusing someone.  
"Eh...don't mind her, she's a Malkavian." Carleigh said in an attempt to calm the situation.  
Sharma snorted. As if she couldn't identify a kook when she saw one. Self-important Ventrue scum. And 'Pederston' sounded British, too. Just her luck.  
"Now...if we could all just come into the sitting room and wait for the last two..." Carleigh was cut off by the front door opening.  
"......so yeah, then there was this wrecked carriage in the middle of the road, so my carriage couldn't get around it really well. Gosh, I wonder who left it there? There was a dead ghoul in there, too. And I don't mean a newly Embraced one by that....."  
The source of the annoyed babble was a rather short girl with a longish brown ponytail. She seemed to be aiming her rant at a tall boy with shoulder length black hair who didn't look too happy to be there.  
Carleigh cleared her throat. The boy didn't react, but the girl looked up.  
"Hey! Who left the damned broken carriage in the road? My horse almost twisted his ankle trying to avoid that mess."  
"Tell me about it." Sugar piped up from the doorway to the sitting room. "It's so RUDE how people just leave stuff in the road."  
"No kidding." the new girl agreed.  
Carleigh thought she could hear a low growl from somewhere in the sitting room.....but she ignored that for the moment.  
"Welcome. I am Carleigh Pederston, Clan Ventrue." she said, introducing herself for what seemed like the millionth time.  
"Catherine D'Armise, Clan Brujah. Call me Cathy."  
"Very well." Carleigh nodded. "And I assume you are of the Setites?" she turned to the boy.  
"I am called Sobek." the boy said simply, refusing to make eye contact. Not that that was unusual among older Kindred.  
"Well then, it seems we are all assembled." Carleigh eyed the newcomers.   
"Shall we go sit down? I should like to properly explain our objectives here before sunrise."  



	11. Chapter 10

  
  
Saturday, 1 November 1800. 3:05 a.m.  
the sitting room.  
  
Carleigh rubbed her temples with her fingertips. She hadn't felt this drained and exhausted since the night of her Embrace.  
Explaining orders and bringing things under control was a lot easier said than done. It was very difficult to put fourteen people all in a room with limited seating. And it certainly didn't help that the vast majority of them didn't want to be within ten feet of anyone else.  
Finally, she decided to just start. It didn't matter that they kept shifting position every five minutes, so long as they kept quiet and listened to her.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention!" Carleigh began, opening her notebook and standing.  
"Is the circus starting?!" Alectz exclaimed excitedly from her perch on top of the bookshelf.  
Carleigh chose to ignore that remark, and the scattered snickers that followed it. Instead, she began her prepared speech.  
"As you know, we have been appointed by our respective clans to fulfill a vital mission. For centuries, almost since the beginning of Kindred existence, we as a race have been plagued by one force: humans. They are the one eternal threat to the Kindred, they are the reason for the Masquerade, and they are, quite simply, the bane of our existence. Our mission, in short, is to eliminate the concentrated human forces that threaten all Kindred, Camarilla, Sabbat, and Independent clans alike.  
"Now I'm not talking about angry mobs of peasants with torches and pitchforks burning down old Count Dracula's mansion. Those can be dealt with with a flick of the wrist. What I mean is the informed forces. The ones who know who we are and what we are. The ones armed with more than a torch and a crucifix. I'm talking about--"  
"The Society of Leopold."  
All eyes in the room turned from Carleigh to Michaela. The Gangrel was still standing by the window. She had looked gloomy and unfriendly from the beginning, but now she appeared to be seething with rage. She had nearly spat the words as well, as if they were a curse.   
Slightly flustered, Carleigh attempted to continue. "Y-yes, the Society of Leopold is one such organization. In fact, they are one of our major targets. I was just getting to that."  
The Gangrel seemed to be satisfied by the assurance that the Society was a target. Carleigh wondered if Michaela perhaps had something personal against the Society. It would certainly make her a good person to send on a mission like this.  
Once again, Carleigh resumed her speech. "Of, course, it is not the only one. There hundreds, if not thousands of organizations like the Society of Leopold everywhere in the world. While most of humanity remains blind to our existence, these kine have spent hundreds of years perfecting the art of vampire extermination. Our goal is to destroy them. All of them. Do you have something to add, Ms. Dvorak?" she added the last part with no small bit of annoyance.  
Carid Dvorak, who had been standing by the bookshelf shaking her head all through Carleigh's speech looked up with what seemed to be becoming her trademark smirk.  
"You're making this whole thing sound like one big reinforcement of the Masquerade. Maybe you and some of your other Camarilla cronies came here to cater to the expectations of the justicars, but that's not why the Sabbat and the Independents are here. We came to slaughter cattle. Just like we've BEEN doing. Do you think the Sabbat needs your help to wipe out kine who know too much?"  
"Then why ARE you here?" Carleigh challenged.  
"Because the kine are getting in our way. And we have more important things to do with our packs than send them after little hovels of would-be mages." Carid sneered. "It's easier to use this team to deal with them. I don't know how this job was described to you, but the way I heard it, we keep the kine out of the way while the rest of our clans worry about the Jyhad."  
"It just makes our unlives a little easier to do it your way this time." Courtney added. "But don't think for a minute that we need any of you."  
The room stood in silence for a few seconds while Carleigh attempted to nurse the beginnings of a migraine. Finally, Seldes spoke.  
"Okay, everyone, let's try to put clan politics aside here. Our objective is to destroy the Society of Leopold and all the organizations like it. That's what's important. That we do it is more important than WHY we do it."  
"The Nossie's got a point." Sugar said from her place by the painting.  
"Fine." Carleigh sighed, barely surpressing a groan. She flipped the page in her notebook. "That was the general mission plan. Now, on to specific rules. Number one: there will be no killing, diablerizing, or incapacitating of any member by another, regardless of clan policies or rivalries, on pain of the aggressor's death."  
Carid looked disappointed.  
"Number two: there will be no destroying of any part of the house. For training and sparring purposes, there is the forest and the padded room downstairs."  
"PADDED ROOM?!!!" Alectz screamed gleefully. "You have a padded room?! I wanna sleep there!!!!! I wanna live there! Nobody can come in the padded room but me!"  
"Um...I believe only the floor is padded." Carleigh added, trying not to look at the way too happy Malkavian.  
"WHAT?! Oh, that's boring!" Alectz whined. "HEY! I've got an idea! We'll get some mattresses and staple them to the walls and--"  
"NUMBER three!" Carleigh practically shouted. "Room assignments can be found on the placards next to the rooms themselves. Room assignments will not be changed under any circumstances. You had best learn to deal with your roommates, because they will also be your partners in battle and field work."  
"So basically we can't get rid of the person?" Sugar interrupted Carleigh AGAIN.  
"I suppose you could say that......" Carleigh allowed. She was getting quite irritated with this Ravnos.  
"So who are our partners slash roommates?" Cathy asked.  
Carleigh shrugged. "Like I said, it's on the placards. I wasn't given a list."  
"You telling me its not somewhere in that notebook? Unbelievable." Cathy smirked.  
Carleigh ignored that. What was so bad about being organized? "Well, those are all the general rules. Those of you who have packages and other belongings coming will receive them tomorrow night, I believe. In a few weeks the council will provide us with ghouls, which is why you were all told not to bring any of your own. And also in a couple of weeks we will be receiving specific assignments along with sources of information on our targets."  
"Wait a minute." Carid cut in. "The council is telling us what to do?"  
"For the time being. Once we have ample sources of data we will be able to monitor the dealings of the targets on our own, and we will no longer require the council's assistance. They're just getting us started." that seemed to placate the Tzimisce. "Well then. Any questions?"  
"Yeah." Sugar raised a hand. "Why does nobody here look over the age of twenty?"  
"And why are there so many girls? The gender ratio is really uneven here....." Ben added.  
"What the hell happened to that horse out front?"  
"What's with that little notebook of yours?"  
"What are we supposed to do for a few weeks with no ghouls?"  
"Do we still get to go hunting?"  
"Can I please staple mattresses to the walls? And the ceiling...?"  
"How come there's a Cappadocian here but not a Salubri or a Daughter of Cacophany or one of the other obscure clans?"  
"Because they're not important enough!"  
"And the Cappadocians are?"  
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!!!??!!"  
Carleigh, realizing these questions were no longer aimed at her, collapsed into her chair. Amy, who incidentally had not said a word the whole evening, gazed steadily at her out of the corner of her eye.  
The Ventrue wasn't doing to well. No one was listening. That was the problem with being the one who appeared to be in power; no one wanted to listen to you. That was where Amy came in....soon. Very soon.  
Mika tried to sink a little further into the stone wall. This room was way too crowded. Mei was trying to strangle Sobek a few feet to her left. She wasn't having much luck. Mika averted her attention to the other end of the room.  
"So, who DID leave that coach there?" Cathy asked Sugar. The Ravnos cocked her head in the direction of the Lasombra...who was still glaring at her.  
Courtney got up and crossed the room. "I assume you are referring to the carriage that, in an attempt to avoid your flea-bitten nag of a steed, met with an unfortunate accident?"  
"Flea-bitten nag indeed. I take better care of him than you take care of your ghouls, it seems."  
"Yeah, he was dead when I found him." Cathy said.  
"Expendable." Courtney waved her hand dismissively. Then she turned back to Sugar. "But you ran my carriage off the road."  
"Oh, bull--"  
Courtney grabbed Sugar's throat. "Watch your step, gypsy."  
Sugar calmly took Courtney's wrist and pulled it away from her neck. "Maybe you should take that advice yourself." with that, she shoved Courtney backwards.  
The Lasombra barely stumbled. "You think so? We shall see." She then turned and made a big show of leaving the room. Sugar rolled her eyes in disgust.  
Mika leaned against the windowpane. She wished she were outside. Annihilating the Society was a worthy cause, but did it have to come at this price?  
"HI!"  
The Gangrel nearly jumped through the window. Alectz just grinned.  
"I like stars." she said, pointing out the window. "Do you like stars?"  
".....yes...." Michaela said after a pause.  
"Do the stars ever talk to you? They talk to me. Do you think they talk to anyone else?"  
Michaela followed Alectz gaze to the north star. "Depends on what they're listening for."  
"I mean, that one obviously says 'this way is north', but the others are more fun." Alectz smiled. "That one tells me how to get to Faeryland. Sometimes. But not tonight."  
"I'm....sorry."  
"That's okay. Maybe it'll wanna talk to me later."  
Mika half-smiled. "Maybe."  
Behind them, Carleigh sat slumped in her chair. This was certainly a challenge. But she was up to it. Really she was. She would prove her leadership abilities. She looked back at the clock. Wasn't it morning yet?  



	12. Chapter 11

  
  
  
Saturday, 1 November 1800. 5:00 a.m.  
sitting room  
  
Amy looked up from Communications with the Fae as the grandfather clock chimed the hour. She glanced around the room. The only people left in here were Carid, who was still huddled in a corner with some large black tome, and Carleigh, who was slumped in the chair on Amy's right. She looked as if she was sleeping.  
Amy smiled to herself at the irony of waking someone up in order to tell them to go to bed.  
"Carleigh." she said softly, touching the Ventrue's shoulder. "Carleigh. Wake up, it's almost dawn."  
Carleigh's eyes fluttered open. "Wh-what?"  
"You should get up to your room. It's almost morning. That goes for you too." Amy said the last part over her shoulder in the general direction of the Tzimisce.  
Carid grunted, barely looking up. Amy didn't press the issue. Why should she care if the girl wanted to stay there until the sun turned her into a pile of smoldering ash? But it struck her as odd that the room didn't have some sort of covering for the windows. Hopefully the bedchambers had better defenses.  
Carleigh pulled herself up, smoothed out her hair and dress, and cleared her throat. "Well, I had best go advise the others to get upstairs...." she said, turning to go.  
"Right." Carid snorted. "Because we all need to be told to get in out of the sun. Never would have figured it out without the help of the illustrious Ventrue. Oh, how does the Sabbat survive without their influence?"  
Carleigh realized that she found herself ignoring more statements than she acknowledged lately.  
Amy showed no reaction whatsoever to the statement, but she could see the Tzimisce's point.  
Carleigh strode out of the room, trying to look awake. She noticed several of the bags still at the foot of the stairs. Well, it probably made more sense to deal with unpacking when they had a whole night to work with. She set about checking the downstairs for anyone who had not noticed the time.  
Amy entered the hall a few minutes after Carid, stealing a glance behind her at the still immobile Tzimisce. She shuddered at the idea of living in the same house with one of the fiends. But from what Carleigh had said, Amy got the impression that the fourteen of them would be dispatched throughout world on various missions at different times. So hopefully she wouldn't have to see much of the Tzimisce. She shouldered her bag and ascended the carpeted staircase to see just who she would be seeing a lot of. She had managed to get a pretty good impression of all the members from Carleigh's little speech earlier, so she felt she was ready for anything.  
She was so caught up in wondering about that that she didn't notice the thing on the stairs until she realized she was falling.   
Amy barely had time to cry out in surprise before her chin came in painful contact with one of the higher steps. Thanks to the angle of the staircase, all her belated attempt to catch herself did was jar her wrists and send her bag tumbling back down the stairs.  
She lay sprawled there for a few moments, trying to make her brain process what had just happened.  
She remained in that rather ungraceful position until the sound of laughter emitting from somewhere under her left leg got her attention. She twisted around even more ungracefully to find at the source.  
The same face that had so frightened Carleigh grinned back at her. "You fell up the stairs." Alectz said as if it were just the grandest thing in the world.  
Amy stared at her, speechless. Finally, she managed a single word.  
"WHY?!"  
Alectz stared blankly.   
"Why are you here?!" Amy tried again.  
Alectz shrugged. "It's the thirteenth step." As if that explained the secrets of the universe.  
Amy stared for a few more moments. Then she realized that she would never understand even if she tried for a hundred years. She disentangled herself from Alectz's still unmoving body and went downstairs to collect her bag. After doing so, she hurried back up the stairs, this time careful to avoid any obstacles.  
Alectz lay there grinning. This was such wonderful fun.  
"You know what's really fun." a voice below her said.  
Alectz flipped around to see Michaela standing beside the staircase, looking up at her through the banister.  
"Covering yourself in mud then sitting completely still by a road and watching to see how many people don't notice you there." the Gangrel finished with something like a smile.  
"If you sit completely still, half the passersby won't notice you even if you strip and paint yourself orange." Alectz grinned.  
  
Still slightly perplexed by the incident on the stairs, Amy walked down one side of the hall looking for her clan name. It hadn't taken her too long to figure out that that was how the assignments were to be determined. It seemed their identities really had remained secret.  
She had understood from her elders that the clan representative's identity was only to be known by the rest of the team and the panel of elders that appointed him or her. She could guess why. There were those among all the clans who thought this alliance was just a creative way of committing treason and betraying their clan's secrets to opposing sects. It was for that reason that most of the Kindred world didn't even know about the formation of this group.  
Amy had checked the nameplates three times before she realized she was looking on the wrong side of the hall. She raised a hand to her brow, mentally chastising herself for being so scatterbrained. Maybe she just needed some rest....  
"Are you alright?"  
Amy opened her eyes to see the Nosferatu standing-or rather, squatting- in the open doorway before her.  
She shook her head. "I'm alright...I just need to find my room and get some sleep."  
"Okay." Seldes smiled. "I think you're down that way." He indicated down the opposite side of the hall."  
"Thank you." Amy said, returning the smile and starting in the direction he had pointed. A Nosferatu smiling tended to be a gruesome sight, and Seldes was no exception, but Amy had personally never met a Nosferatu she didn't like. Once you got past the exterior, they were really quite an amiable clan.  
Finally, clear on the other end of the hall, Tremere. Amy sighed in relief and reached for the doorknob, almost forgetting to check the other name. She caught herself and looked up before she was completely through the doorway.  
No. Oh no.  
Above Tremere, another smooth brown plate reading......  
Tzimisce.  
"No. Absolutely unacceptable." Amy said with surprising calm. Inside, she was panicking. She couldn't share a room with a fiend! She'd be murdered in her sleep, regardless of Carleigh's stupid rules! Not only that, but she would be expected to travel and work with the monster! If her clan ever found out......  
And then it hit her. The rooms had been assigned by their clans. The pairings had been assigned by their clans. And that meant....that for whatever reason, Amy's elders wanted her to work and live with a Tzimisce.  
But...WHY?!  
She stumbled into the room. Still in total shock, she collapsed onto the nearest bed. What was she going to do? How was she going to deal? Where was she going to put up her wards?! The door was in the center of the wall that separated the room from the hallway. That meant it would be impossible to shell off one side of the room without slicing the door in half. Maybe if she put some up around her bed....  
Oh why oh why did this have to happen to HER?!  
  
Saturday, 1 November 1800. 5:30 a.m.  
front porch  
"You have to come in!" Carleigh shouted.  
"I do not!" the Gangrel yelled back.  
"Look, I don't care if you can sink into the ground or whatever it is you people do! You're supposed to stay inside!"  
"I can't sleep in houses!"  
"Well give it a try!"  
"NO."  
"Please?" Carleigh pleaded, energy fading by the minute.  
"Why is it so important where I spend the day?!"  
"It IS important!" Carleigh wailed, her control utterly smashed by exhaustion. "I'm trying so hard to be a leader here and NOBODY'S listening to me! Why can't you people do one little thing that will give some hint of group solidarity?! Why can't you just cooperate?! Why must you all ruin my unlife??!!  
Michaela blinked.  
Carleigh, inches away from a sobbing breakdown, turned and ran back in the house. She darted into the first available space, which happened to be the sitting room. For a few minutes, she just stood there, collecting her wits. This was just the first night, she kept telling herself. Things will calm down tomorrow. You will be rested and better able to deal with this tomorrow. The first night is always the hardest.  
Once she believed herself to be sufficiently calmed, she made to go upstairs, noting briefly that Carid had finally extracted herself from that corner. The Tzimisce was gone, supposedly upstairs. Now there was someone whom Carleigh would need plenty of rest to deal with....  
She strolled out into the hall, feeling a little better, if still totally exhausted. Suddenly.....  
"VENTRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
Carleigh jumped about a foot in the air. She found herself standing at the bottom of the stairs and looking up at a Tzimisce who looked as if she was about to enter frenzy.  
"NO! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I REFUSE TO WORK WITH ONE OF THOSE ACCURSED WARLOCKS!" Carid screamed, not loosing her original volume for a moment.  
"What?!" Carleigh cried. "You mean...they put you and Amy together?"  
"What INCREDIBLE perception!" Carid shouted, her sarcasm saturating the walls.  
"What are you yelling at me for?! I had nothing to do with the assignments! But in any case, they can't be changed. You'll just have to deal with it."  
"Deal with it?! DEAL with it?!"  
"I'd like to see how you 'deal with it', Ventrue." the increasingly familiar voice of Sugar Kelly called from down the upstairs hall. "Take a look at your own assignment!"  
'Oh, gods, please don't let me be paired with HER!' Carleigh prayed silently as she hurried up the stairs. Luckily, Alectz had moved somewhere else at this point.  
She brushed past the still murderous-looking Carid and noticed Sugar leaning on one of the doors. The Ravnos pointed at the placard beside the door before standing upright and entering the door beside the one she had indicated.  
Carleigh breathed a small sigh of relief. At least it wasn't Sugar she was rooming with. She stepped forward and took a look at the placard. Venture and.......Lasombra?!  
"What the....." Carleigh murmured.  
"That's what I'd like to know." Courtney was suddenly standing in the now open doorway. The Lasombra was glaring at her in a way that could have frozen hell over.  
"So. Can the room assignments still not be changed?" Sugar challenged.  
Carleigh gritted her teeth in anger. She knew perfectly well where this was headed. If she backed out on her own ruling now, and switched rooms...it would make her look like a weakling and a fool. She would lose all the respect of the others. And since they didn't have much respect for her in the first place, that was not a risk Carleigh could afford to take. She could not create a double standard.  
"The room assignments will not be changed under any circumstances." she said calmly and with control. And through her teeth.  
With that, she turned and walked past Courtney in to THEIR room. The rest of the occupants of the hallway-which at this time of morning was most of the group-stared after her, some with surprise, some with admiration, and in one case, with disgust.  
Sharma shook her head and turned back into her room. Seldes followed her. After all, it was his room too. He had assumed that all the rooms would be gender coordinated; at least that was the impression he got when all the council asked about the representative was their gender. Not that he minded either way. People were people and a partner was a partner; it was all the same to him.  
"That was pretty big of her." Seldes commented, closing the door behind him.  
Across the room, the Assamite was drawing the large black curtains over the window. She let out a light snort as Seldes spoke.  
"It would have been more impressive if she had been doing it out of honor instead of shame."  
"What do you mean?" Seldes hopped onto his bed.  
Sharma tied the curtains securely shut and turned to face him in the darkness. "She was merely responding to the Ravnos' challenge. Had she been alone and at her own will, she would have compromised the regulation." then after a pause. "She has no principles."  
"You don't know that." Seldes, tolerant as ever, gently chided.  
Though it was completely dark, he could see Sharma's outline moving towards her own bed on the other side of the room.  
"I know." Sharma said with quiet assurance. "I know her kind all too well." That said, she lay down with her back to her roommate.  
Seldes sighed quietly as he burrowed under the sheets. He was at least proud of himself for getting the Assamite to talk to him. But unfortunately, she seemed to oppose quite a few of his own views. Anyone who made generalizations like 'her kind'.....  
But now he was generalizing. He didn't know Sharma. Perhaps the girl actually had some sort of history with the Ventrue. Personal injury was hard to forgive. Seldes knew that well enough himself. Sometimes he wondered if he was too idealistic; some nights he felt like the only Cainite in the world who believed in what he believed in.  
But as his sire once told him, just because your friends don't agree with you doesn't mean you aren't right. Maybe there was someone else out there who believed that everyone could get along if they just gave each other a chance.  
In any event, Sharma didn't seem to be that person. After a few moments of thinking about what she said and the way she had said it, Seldes was quite certain that she had a personal grudge against the Ventrue. A grudge that was making her miserable.  
Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea. Just because Sharma didn't believe in the good of the individual now didn't mean that she never would. Seldes could teach her. Maybe make her understand. But not by telling her. That would never work. He would SHOW her that there was good in everyone. But even more importantly, he was determined to help her let go of whatever happened in the past that plagued her so much even now.   
Of course he knew damn well that Assamites were hard nuts to crack. That was fine with him. Idealist or no, he was going to try to convert her to tolerancism (his 'religion'). And besides. Your roommate was your partner. You couldn't get rid of them. He would be her friend whether she liked it or not!  



	13. Chapter 12

  
  
  
Sunday, 2 November 1800. 7:15 p.m.  
the forest outside the house  
Mika liked winter. Night fell by six o'clock. And it was good to get out of that house. And yes, she had ended up going in. To even her own surprise and partial shame. But she couldn't help it. Somehow, people crying always got to her. What could she say? She was a sucker for damsels in distress as well.  
Not that she felt the need to explain herself to anyone. Even Sugar Kelly, her Ravnos roommate. Well, if the gypsy could stay put, so could she. And the room wasn't so bad in the dark.  
Still it, was good to get out.  
She perched completely still on a moss covered log, stretching her senses in search of small animals to hunt. Mika didn't necessarily hunt for food, though she did that too when necessary. No, most of the time -like now- it was just for fun.  
She watched, listened, and waited for she knew not how long. Suddenly, the snap of a twig in the distance put her senses on full red alert. The sound of movement came closer. Mika swiftly jumped into a nearby tree, intending to watch her prey from above and then pounce. From the noise it was beginning to make, this thing was big. All the more fun.  
With a loud crash of branches and a flurry of dry leaves, the unsuspecting prey stumbled into the log Mika had been perched on a moment ago.  
"Hey! Where did you go?! Come back!"  
Mika realized with some shock that her 'prey' was the star-gazing Malk she had spoken to last night. Damn. They weren't allowed to harm team members. She hadn't felt particularly malicious towards any of them in the first place, but all the same, it would have been fun.  
Alectz looked around frantically. She was clearly searching for something that was capable of running away. And not doing a good job of it. You don't hunt something down by calling it repeatedly and throwing piles of leaves around.  
But maybe she wasn't hunting it?  
Suddenly, Alectz spun around and looked straight up at the Gangrel in the tree. "Hey! Have you seen a little gnome about a foot tall run through here?"  
Mika was so startled she almost fell from her perch. Had Alectz known she was there the whole time? She shook her head slowly in response to the Malkavian's question.  
"Damn!" Alectz stamped her foot. "That was the third time he got away......"  
Mika blinked. Obviously, the Malk was talking about something on another plane of existence. It was really quite amazing how the planes could overlap in a Malkavian's vision. And yet so confusing.......  
"Have the stars talked to you?"  
Mika stared for a moment. "Oh...right...no, not yet. There aren't many out." She added.  
"Not yet." Alectz smiled. "But they will be. Do you have a star that talks to you a lot?"  
Mika shook her head. "No.....but I think my sire does. He spends a lot of time staring at one part of the sky whenever he thinks I'm not looking." she shrugged, not really seeing where this was headed.  
"Ask him to tell you about it sometime."  
Alectz smiled one more time, then dashed off the way she had come. Mika sat there in the tree for a few more seconds. Why?  
Oh well. It was not for her to wonder about Malkavians. If she did that she'd be here all night. She pricked up her ears again and restarted her search for some small animals to play with.  



	14. Chapter 13

Sunday, 2 November 1800. 8:30 p.m.  
the kitchen  
Cathy yawned widely and went to pull a glass decanter of type B out of the insulated ice chest. What she actually extracted was a small clock. She stood there staring at it in her hand for about a minute. It was too early in the morning for her to comprehend this.  
The back door opened behind her, and a ruffled and foliage covered Alectz walked into the kitchen. Cathy continued to just stand there, holding the clock.  
Alectz came up behind her, took the clock from her hand, grinned at her, and walked out of the room.  
Cathy stood there for a few more seconds, staring at the back of the Malkavian. Finally, she just shook her head and got out her breakfast.  
  



	15. Chapter 14

  
  
Sunday, 2 November 1800. 8:45 p.m.  
Carid and Amy's room  
White. Whiteness surrounding her. Crushing her. The wind, howling like a banshee chorus, deafening her and ripping her mind to shreds.   
And the hunger. Surging up from within, filling her being and driving her mad. She had to run! She had to hide, she had to FEED! Yet she couldn't move. The white and the wind closed around her. Captured her. So dark....so cold....  
Carid awoke with a start, almost falling headfirst off her bed. She caught herself and collapsed back onto the sheets and pillow. for a few moments, she just lay there, waiting for the intensity of the dream to fade from her mind.  
So she had managed to fall asleep after all. She never thought she would. She spent she knew not how many hours that day just lying in the darkness, senses completely on guard. Ready for the Tremere to send some sort of evil magic spell at her at any moment. Not that she was totally sure how to ward off a magical attack, now that she thought about it. But somehow, remaining paranoid seemed much safer than trying to sleep. She had the feeling the Tremere hadn't gotten much sleep either. For the same reason.  
Well, wasn't that ironic? Both of them so paranoid about being attacked by the other that neither actually did anything.   
But she had fallen asleep. Even without her dirt. It was still downstairs in her bag. By the time she had realized she had left it, she had already figured it would be a bad idea to go into deep sleep-or any sleep at all- that particular night with that particular roommate.  
And yet she had fallen asleep. Unbelievable. She could never sleep without her dirt. And on the rare occasions that she did -like now- the dreams came. Sometimes they came even when she had her dirt. But never as bad as when she went without. And certainly never as bad as today. It was probably the combination of tension, anger, paranoia, and no dirt that had done it. Well, that would teach her, wouldn't it?  
She didn't feel like thinking about the no-dirt dreams anymore. She never did. Besides, dreaming of unbearable hunger made her want to feed as soon as possible. She didn't think there were many hunting opportunities this far up the mountain, but there was supposed to be a variety of blood supplied in the downstairs kitchen.  
Well, wasn't that boring.  
Oh well. Blood was blood. She swung her legs off the bed and flipped on the electric lamp next to her bed. The light wasn't very bright, but it was enough to let her see her way to the door.  
Still a bit shaken by the dream, she failed to look up and check the Tremere's whereabouts until she was halfway to the door. And dangerously close to the warlock's bed.  
She spun on her heel, expecting to see some cosmic stake pointed at her. Instead, she saw Amy lying on her back, apparently fast asleep. So exhaustion had taken her too.  
Or had it? It seemed quite unlikely that a Tremere would allow herself to go to sleep without any viable defenses put up. A little voice in the back of her mind reminded her that the same could have been said for a Tzimisce, but she opted to ignore that for the moment.  
Carid took a long look at Amy's prostrate form. She certainly couldn't see anything. But then she wasn't much of a sorceress. Her interests were more in the physical plane.....blood, flesh, femurs....so she essentially had no way of knowing what the Tremere might have done to protect herself.  
She bent down and picked a small rock off the carpet. It had probably fallen of one of their shoes yesterday; it was just a tiny pebble.  
She held it in her hand for a moment, then gently tossed it in the direction of the sleeping Tremere.  
It bounced. As the rock came within about a foot of Amy's head, it was caught by a indent of blue sparks and flung backwards without a sound. The Tremere didn't stir.  
'Wow', Carid thought. 'That was pretty impressive.' She looked for the rock to try out the shield again. When she couldn't find it after a few moments of searching, she decided experiments with Tremere magic could wait until after breakfast. She left the room and went downstairs.  
On the way down she grabbed her sack from its place slightly off the third step and extracted the small bag of Austrian dirt she carried everywhere with her. Even though she wasn't planning to go anywhere for a while, she attached the bag to her belt anyway. It was a kind of security blanket.  
As she made her way towards the kitchen, Carid wondered when they would be getting their assignments. Not that she was overly eager to start traipsing halfway around the globe with a member of the most vile clan of the Camarilla bastards.....  
But she had no idea what she was expected to do HERE. Tonight, she knew they were getting their things. That would be good. The rooms were so sparse now. Redecorating would surely take tonight and maybe even tomorrow night. But what after that? They were supposed to get ghouls in about a week. The Ventrue had implied they would all be there at least until then.  
Wonderful. What was she supposed to do after that? Avoid the Tremere as much as possible? Wait for the Malkavian to prank her? There was no library here, despite the Ventrue's claim on 'ample literature'. Well, at least once her own things got here she'd be able to read something worthwhile. The best they had in there was the Organized History of Human Anatomy and It's Study. Not a bad book, but not enough pictures and diagrams.  
She stumbled into the kitchen, still tired and unrested from sleeping with nightmares and no dirt. Oddly enough, the only other occupant of the room was Cathy, the Brujah. She had expected more of them at this time in the evening.  
Cathy just sat at the table, staring blankly into space. Carid ignored her and went for the ice chest where the blood was supposed to be. She extracted a decanter, not looking at the type and not particularly caring, pulled out the cork, and began chugging the contents right there.  
"Clocks." Cathy said aloud.  
Carid took the decanter from her lips and wiped her mouth on her sleeve, inadvertently leaving a pink streak across the left side of her face. "What?"  
"Clocks. There are clocks in the ice."  
The Tzimisce turned and opened the ice chest. After careful inspection of the contents, she looked back up at Cathy.  
"What do you mean there are clocks in the ice?"   
"Why would there be clocks in the ice?" the Brujah muttered pensively.  
"That's what I was about to ask you...." Carid's voice trailed off as she realized it was hopeless.  
"Stupid Brujah...."she muttered. going to finish her blood someplace else. The bewildered Brujah remained at the table, wondering why anyone would put a clock in the ice.  
Carid wandered through the front hall, still wondering where everyone was. The muffled sound of shouting coming from the general direction of the large oak door gave her some clue.  
  
"AUGH!" Courtney cried. "Be careful with that! That's a very expensive piece of woodwork, you bumbling Brujah fool!!!!"   
"Courtney, they can't hear you." Carleigh chided her from the other side of the porch. "They're all under Dominate. They can't hear anything."  
"They're ruining my table!"  
"Your table is fine--wait a minute. You're not going to try and put that in our room, are you?" Carleigh gaped.  
"Of course I am! You think I'd leave that in one of the common rooms? That's Spanish oak!"  
"Courtney! That thing is huge! There's no way you can keep it in there!"  
"You just try and stop me, Ventrue." Courtney growled. What she wouldn't give for a few nice big war ghouls right now. That was the one thing the fleshcrafters were good for. Making war ghouls. Other than that, the fiends made her skin crawl.  
But be that as it may, she would have traded this idiotic control-freak Ventrue for the Tzimisce any night. She was baffled that Carleigh hadn't changed the rooms. Hadn't the Ventrue claimed to be in charge? Privilege for the elite was something Courtney had always expected and even relied upon, especially during her mortal life. So what was wrong with Carleigh?  
The ghouls deposited the Spanish oak table at the foot of the steps, then went back into the van for more of the things.  
"Hey, wait a minute." Courtney frowned. "Are they just going to leave it there?"  
"According to this," Carleigh looked down at her notebook, "they were only supposed to bring the things up here. We have to put them where we want them on our own."  
"What?! Who made this up?!"  
"The council." Carleigh said simply. Then reading from her notebook, "All personal possessions were sent to the council, and then the council sent them up here in the care of ghouls under dominate, so as not to reveal the location of this base to anyone other than personal ghouls who may have escorted their dominators here last night...."  
"I don't want the full case history!" Courtney spat in annoyance. "I just want my stuff upstairs!"  
The sound of snapping twigs distracted both their attentions toward the forest. Courtney's face lit up.  
"Hey! Gangrel!"  
Michaela glanced up, startled. There hadn't been any small animals around, so she was coming back for breakfast....damn. She knew she should have gone around the back.....  
Courtney hurried to meet her as she came closer to the house. "Would you like to protect an important piece of woodworking?"  
Michaela stared. "Um....not really."  
Courtney sighed. "Well, would you like twenty five shillings?"  
"No."  
"Well what DO you want?!" the exasperated Lasombra threw her hands up in confusion.  
"Nothing, really."  
Courtney stared at the Gangrel as if she'd grown a second head.  
"Do YOU need something?" Mika asked.  
"I-I...." Courtney stammered. "I need that table moved upstairs."  
"And you want me to move the table?"  
"Yes." Courtney sighed tiredly.  
"Then ask me to move the table."  
"What?" the Lasombra gave her another odd look. "Okay....Will you please take that table up to my room?" she said, emphasizing the word 'please'.  
"Okay." Mika said. She crossed the yard, picked up the table rather effortlessly, and carried it inside.  
Courtney and Carleigh both watched her go, baffled expressions on both their faces.  
"What was that?!" Courtney exclaimed after a few minutes.  
"I'm.....not sure..." Carleigh murmured.  
Courtney hurried after her table, wanting to make sure the Gangrel put it in the right place. As she passed by, Carleigh heard her muttering....  
"I offer her the chance to get a favor from me, she doesn't want that. I offer her money, she doesn't want that. She must want something, everyone wants something....."  
Carleigh shook her head.  
  



	16. Chapter 15

  
Sunday, 2 November 1800. 9:05 p.m.  
"Auuugh!!!" Benjamin shrieked in a tone usually reserved for summoning dogs. "What have you done?! What did you do with my stuff?! WHAT IS THAT THING ON MY WALL!!!!???!!"  
"YOUR wall?" Sobek sneered. "Just try and take it back, art fag."  
"MY PAINTINGS!!!!!!!"  
"In the name of all that is unholy, will you STOP screaming?!" The Setite growled. "Look, your stupid drawings are on your bed. I barely touched them."  
Ben raced across the room to his bed and found, as Sobek had said, the rural landscapes that up to a few moments ago, had been hung on the wall opposite. But unfortunately for Ben and his paintings, Sobek had seem fit to hang a heiroglyphed and emblazed sheet of papyrus the size of a large poster in that very spot. From an objective perspective, the papyrus was an amazing piece of workmanship. From what Ben could tell, it depicted the daily battle between Ra and Set, when the god of darkness tried once again to cast the sun from the sky--yet always failed. The persistence of Set, and his courage in facing an entity so much more powerful than himself was an example of the sort of honor and strength that was known to bring tears to Benjamin's eyes.  
Except, of course, when the Setite's stupid poster was displacing his paintings!  
"Why can't you put that somewhere else?!" Ben whined. "My paintings were there first!"  
"So?"  
Benjamin stared for a minute. That wasn't supposed to be his response. Why was there never a script around when you needed one? "It's not fair! I got her first so my stuff gets priority!"  
"Oh, is that how things work in La Salon de Toreador?" Sobek said in mocking French tones. "Welcome to the Temple of Set."   
Ben stood up in a miff. There was plenty of wall space in there! Okay, so maybe the paintings had been a little closer to Sobek's side than his own, but that wasn't the issue! He shouldn't have to move his paintings! But there was no way he could make the Setite give in on his own. He needed someone with muscle.  
He wandered out into the hall and just stood there for a minute. Who to ask for help? A few seconds later, a figure covered mostly in gray fur came up the stairs, carting two large heavy looking boxes.  
The figure-Michaela Greywauld, actually-proceeded to dump the boxes in front of her own room and then bang on the door a couple of times.  
"Alright, I brought it up the bloody stairs, but I'm NOT putting it together for you!"  
The door swung open to reveal Mika's tall blonde roommate. "Thanks Mika!" She cried, hopping over the packages and throwing her arms around the Gangrel. "You know I love you."  
"Um...whatever. Could you possibly let go of me?" Mika looked a bit uncomfortable with contact any closer than a half-mile radius.  
But Sugar Kelly was already dragging the boxes into their room. Mika shrugged and made to go back outside. She'd rather be out there than cooped up in here, even if it did mean she got recruited for moving duty every time she turned around.  
Ben lighted upon her immediately. "Michaela? Hi! Can you please help me?"  
Mika sighed heavily. "Alright, where is it?"  
Ben looked confused. "Where is what?"  
"The package slash piece of furniture slash case of books slash stereo system slash kitchen sink that you want me to bring up here for you. Just like every other vampire around here tonight."  
"Um....actually I want you to help me beat up someone. And by that I mean you beat him up and I watch and cheer for you."  
Mika smirked. "Well, at least you're honest. But I'm not sure how badly I can hurt him without Miss Queen of the frickin world Pederston getting on my case."  
"I just need you to make him move his stuff." Ben smiled, grabbing Mika's forearm-the one relatively hairless part of her body- and dragging her down the hall to his and Sobek's room.  
Ben pointed to the poster. "I put my paintings there. But then he took them down and put that up. Make him move it. Please."  
Mika stared at the poster. Then glanced around the rest of the room. "Is there some particular reason that you both have to put something right HERE? It's not like you're lacking in space."  
"But my stuff was there first!"  
"Oh for the love of--" Sobek muttered from the bureau in which he was placing his things. "You put your drawings clear on my side of the room! What's wrong with that big spot by your bed?!"  
"The light doesn't hit them right! The deep blue looks black over there!"  
"What deep blue?!"  
Benjamin held up one of the paintings. "THAT deep blue!"  
"That IS black!"  
"It is not!"  
"Yes it is!"  
"How would you know?!"  
"I can tell the difference between black and blue!"  
"HEY!" Mika silenced them. "Never mind what color it is, it doesn't matter! Okay, look. If we take this lamp....." She picked up the tall lamp standing against the wall and moved it a few feet to the left. "Then Sobek's poster can move this way a little, and Ben's pictures can go on the right. And the glare of light off that wall should be exactly the same as it was a few minutes ago, only in THAT spot instead of THAT one." She turned to look at the two boys. "Agreed?"  
After a few moments of staring blankly, Ben picked up one of his pictures and held it in the spot Mika had pointed to. It took about two minutes for him to sufficiently judge the effect. Then, finally...  
"I.....guess.... that would be okay...."  
Sobek threw his hands up in resignation. "Fine. FINE. I don't care anyway."  
Mika slipped out of the room while the two others worked on redecorating. Sheesh, the most simple solutions could be lost on the most stupid people. It would have been funny if it wasn't so irritating.  
"That was impressive."  
Mika glanced over her shoulder. She had known Carleigh was there, of course, but she hadn't expected the Ventrue to speak. "It was a compromise." she shrugged.  
"Ever considered a career in inter-clan diplomacy?"  
"No."  
Carleigh looked as if she was about to make some wisecrack about wild wolves, but was cut off by a burst of unidentifiable screaming from down the hall.  
"I think they might need your help next....." Carleigh muttered. The door to Mika's own room opened and Sugar came over to them.   
"What's up with them?" the indistinguishable shouts of rage were still going on.  
Mika shrugged.  
"What do you expect when you try to make two ancient enemies live together?" Carleigh sighed. "I know how they feel....."  
"Ancient enemies my tail." Mika muttered. "Bet they never saw each other before two nights ago." Luckily, the other two didn't hear her. Suddenly, the door to one room was flung open and...  
"Unidentified Flying Tremere at six o' clock." Sugar chuckled.  
The door swung shut as quickly as it had opened. And a very disgruntled Amaranth Polgaran let out a scream of utter frustration before scrambling to her feet.  
"Amy?" Carleigh said, walking to the Tremere's side. "Are you okay?"  
"Okay? Okay?! I'm wonderful!" Amy shouted to no one in particular. She crumpled down to the floor against Mika's and Sugar's door and buried her face in her hands. "What have I done to deserve this?" She moaned. "Did I somehow offend the Regent? Why would my elders wish this upon me? Have I not always been faithful? WHY?! Why ME?!"  
Carleigh sat down next to her an looped an arm around her shoulders. "Believe me, I know how you feel, dear. I know I didn't ask for my room assignment."  
"But why? Why a Tzimisce? My elders want me dead. That's all there is to it. She'll kill me in my sleep......" Amy shook her head in resignation. "I might as well just accept my fate."  
"She's not going to kill you." Carleigh assured her. "It's written very clearly. We are not permitted to kill any member of this team on pain of our own deaths."  
Mika rolled her eyes. She was really getting quite sick of the Ventrue quoting her notebook. Granted, she had probably been the one to originally write those notes, but did she have to sound so.... bureaucratic when she said them?  
The Gangrel shook her head and trotted down the stairs to wait for the next person who would expect her to move something.  



	17. Chapter 16

  
  
Sunday, 2 November 1800. 9:30 p.m.  
Carid stretched a white cloth over her operating table. Yes, that was the perfect spot for it. Right under the window, where the moonlight hit it just perfectly at about midnight. How dare the Tremere suggest putting an alter here?  
That had only been the straw that broke the camel's back as far as decorating went. There had been the argument over the bookshelves, and that weird standing candle thing that Carid just knew was going to end up burning the whole house down, then the issue of wall space.  
Trying to displace her operating table was one thing. It was another thing entirely to insult Carid's favorite paintings. A man with misplaced limbs and wooden bolts sticking out of his body was the height of artwork, not an abomination! The Tremere had to go. For the moment, at least.  
And since she hadn't responded to being ordered out, she had to be ejected bodily. Carid didn't think she had overreacted at all.  
  
Amy sat huddled in a chair in the sitting room. She was not happy. Not at all. Luckily, everyone else was unpacking, arguing about decorating, and otherwise not paying any attention to her. That was just fine. She wiped her eyes, which for some odd reason seemed to be filled with blood.  
Oh, who was she kidding? She couldn't do this. She had spent her whole unlife in the safety of the Chantry of Vilnus. She had never even seen battle against the Sabbat. Just because she had a talent for Camarilla politics, the Regent had decided she was the perfect candidate. She had expected to be partnered with the Ventrue or the Brujah or even the Nosferatu. So long as it was a member of the Camarilla. But no. She got a Sabbat. Not just a Sabbat, but the sworn enemy of her clan. A Tzimisce.  
And as much as she hated to admit it, she was afraid of that Tzimisce. It had been pride alone that kept her arguing with Carid after the girl had started yelling. It wasn't just her appearance that was frightening, though it was very much that, particularly when the Tzimisce was angered. No, it was her whole demeanor. The undeniable capacity for cruelty and the filth of a corrupted soul that saturated Carid's aura.  
Amy wouldn't normally hide from her own bedroom. But she wasn't going back there. She couldn't. She wiped her face again, glad that no one else was here to see her weakness.  
"Amy?" a small voice came from behind her.  
Amy didn't even bother to be surprised. The other shoe always dropped. It was Murphy's Law. Anything that can possibly go wrong will.  
She made a mental note to kill whoever Murphy was.  
After trying to wipe her face more effectively, she turned to face the intruder. A cute little girl's face stared back at her.  
"Hello, Mei." She said calmly.  
"You seem sad." the little Cappadocian seemed genuinely concerned.  
"No, I'm alright." Amy sighed heavily. "This all just takes some adjusting to..." She breathed.  
"Is Carid picking on you?" Mei asked, seating herself on the arm of Amy's chair.  
"Well...if flinging me across the hall counts as picking on me, then I suppose she is." Amy smiled wryly.  
"Oh dear....." Mei furrowed her small brow. "Maybe you guys just need to get to know each other better."  
Amy sighed. "That would be nice, but there's a little matter of a centuries old grudge....."  
"You've known Carid for centuries?" Mei exclaimed, surprised.  
Amy stared at her for a few moments. "No, of course not....I meant the grudge between the Tremere and the Tzimisce. I only just met Carid."  
Mei looked confused. "If you just met her, why do you hold a grudge against her? Or she against you?"  
Amy could not for the unlife of her see where this was heading. "Because...she's a Tzimisce and I'm a Tremere?"  
Mei crossed her arms. "That's not a very good reason. If you never did anything to her and she never did anything to you, why fight?"  
Amy was unable to think of an answer.  
"Unless she insulted your country. Did she insult your country? What is your country?"  
"Um...Lithuania."  
"Isn't that a part of Russia?"  
Amy bristled. "That's besides the point. As far as I'm concerned its it's own country."  
"Absolutely! How dare Russia take over another country!" Mei said angrily. "Oh, I get it. Carid's Russian!"  
"Er....Actually I think she's....Austrian or German or something." Amy corrected.  
"Oh." Mei stopped. "I would understand if she was Russian...."  
"I would have thought you'd be on her side." Amy told Mei. "Essentially, the Tremere did to the Tzimisce what the Giovanni did to the Cappadocians."  
"But Maria's nice." Mei protested. "Besides, it doesn't mater how hard anyone tries to destroy the Cappadocians. We're going to take over the world anyway, so it doesn't matter. They can never beat us!" She chirped happily.  
"Alright......" Amy nodded. Better to just agree with her....  
"Well, cheer up!" Mei hopped off the arm of the chair. "And try not to blame Carid for her clan. But if you see any Russians, feel free to blame them for anything." with that, she turned and skipped out of the room.  
Amy shook her head. She felt a little better after having talked to someone, but still.....what a strange child....  
  



	18. Chapter 17

  
  
Sunday, 2 November 1800. 10:35 p.m.  
Seldes gazed contemplatively at the cleared area behind the house. Yes, a vegetable garden would look lovely right about......there. He knew Ben wanted the area to the left for a flower garden. It was one of the many things they had discussed in the kitchen the previous night.  
Flowers were pretty enough, but Seldes preferred vegetables. Not that he ate them or sold them or anything. It just made him feel good to create something so useful. Food was a wonderful thing. So many vampires no longer realized that.  
He remembered his old vegetable garden inside the Warren. The area he had planted it in was officially off limits, mainly because it was in the bottom of an old well and the sun hit the bottom during the day. But that was perfect for him. He could tend the garden at night, and in the day it would get all the sunlight it needed.  
And to tell the truth, that was another reason it had to be a vegetable garden. A flower garden would have attracted too much attention. Though the villagers didn't use the well anymore, some children still liked to play around it. From a distance, vegetables could be mistaken for weeds, while if the children had seen flowers down at the bottom of the well, they might have crawled down to get a better look. And you simply could not have small kids crawling into a Nosferatu Warren.  
Anyway, it was those kids and their families that got the vegetables once they were ripe. Seldes always used to sneak into the village late at night and leave the produce on the doorsteps of some of the more run-down homes. Though money would have been taken immediately, no one ever seemed to steal food. It was odd where the humans placed their priorities. Even his own clanmates didn't approve of him doing that, though. But those people were suffering, and Seldes just couldn't help but try to do something about it.  
Bleeding heart liberal that he was.  
Well then. His vegetables would go over there. Maybe he and Ben could plant some trees around the outside too. Not the big evergreens that surrounded the. Maybe something like an apple tree....  
"Hi!"   
Seldes jumped about a foot in the air. "Oh....hello Cathy."  
The Brujah smiled. "You know, I was trying to bond with Maria, cause she's my partner and all, but she kicked me out of the room. So yeah. I came out here. What're you doing?"  
"I was thinking about planting a garden. Over there." Seldes pointed to the corner he had been examining.  
"Oh, cool! Hey, the Ventrue chick said something about going down to Geneva tomorrow night! Maybe you can buy seeds and stuff."  
"Really?" Seldes was surprised. "Geneva's really not all that close..."  
"Yeah, I know, but I think we're gonna go early tomorrow night and then stay the day at this factory of hers. That's the real reason she wants to go. To check it out. Man, those guys are richer than god."  
Seldes nodded placatingly. "Well, with all the new gadgets they've got coming out these days, there's lots of opportunities to make money."  
"Then how come I don't have any?" Cathy crossed her arms in annoyance. Then in an abrupt change of subject: "Hey, did you see anything weird in the icebox this evening?"  
"Um....what do you mean by weird?"  
"Like...clocks. Little clocks in the ice. It was so weird......"  
"That....is" Seldes agreed.  
They both paused at the sound of maniacal laughter coming from the house.....  



	19. Chapter 18

Sunday, 2 November 1800. 10:40 p.m.  
Mei and Alectz's room.  
"I love it!" Alectz laughed gleefully. "I absolutely love it! It's beautiful!"  
She wasn't saying this to anyone in particular.  
Mei opened the door and peeked in. "Alectz? What's so funny? And....what's that on the wall?"  
"It's an EGG!!"  
Mei cautiously came in and looked over Alectz's shoulder at the ripped piece of paper on the wall. "What's it doing under a cinderblock?"  
"I DON'T know!" Alectz cried. "That's what makes it so wonderful!"  
"Where did you get that?"  
"It was in that bag downstairs! There's an advertisement for some kind of energy tonic on the other side. But this side has an EGG! And the egg is under the cinderblock! And the egg has no energy! EHEHEHEHEHEEEE!!!!"  
Mei took a small step back.  
  



	20. Chapter 19

Sunday, 2 November 1800. 11:02 p.m.  
"Hey....what happened to my flier?" Maria frowned as she unpacked her things. One of her chemical references was torn up. Dammit. That so-called energy tonic was one of the best embalming fluids in Italy! She had needed to know how to make it......especially since, if she was to believe the Brujah's seemingly endless prattle, they were going to Geneva the following night. The capital of this country should have a decent alchemists' shop. She hoped.  
"Hi! I know you told me to go jump off a cliff, but I couldn't find any in the backyard, so I'm back now."  
Maria turned around and glared at her roommate.  
"I can tell you're just thrilled to see me." Cathy grinned.  
Maria held up the ripped paper. "Did you do this?!"  
"What is that?" Cathy peered at the remnants of text.  
"It WAS a very important alchemic recipe."  
"Recipe? You mean like, dinner?"  
"No, I mean, like, embalming!"  
"Like mummies and stuff?"  
"Well, yes, I suppose....anyway, did you do this?"  
"No......"  
"Damn...." Maria muttered, turning back to her things. "Well, there are other formulas I can use.....I hate to lose that one though....."  
"Why do you need it, anyway?" Cathy asked. "You planning on finding any dead people?"  
"I'm surrounded by dead people."  
Cathy stood there a moment. Then it hit her. "Oh, hey! That's funny. Cause, like, we're all dead. That was cool."  
"Yes...of course....." Maria muttered. This was going to be a long night. Unfortunately, it promised to be the first of several like it.  
  



	21. Chapter 20

Monday, 3 November 1800. 12:43 a.m.  
Sitting room.  
Carleigh snapped her notebook shut with satisfaction and reached to her left. Only to find that her bell was missing. She checked the table next to her. No bell. Someone would pay for this....  
Then she remembered where she was. This was not her mansion in New York City. She did not have a bell with which to summon her ghouls. She did not have her ghouls.  
This was infuriating. Was she supposed to get up and tell everyone to come in here herself?  
No, of course not. That was so beneath Carleigh's dignity it made her squirm. She had to find someone ELSE to go around and tell everyone to come in here.  
She got up and stuck her head out into the hallway. "Seldes!"  
The Nosferatu was just emerging from the kitchen door. He moved towards Carleigh, walking with his hands, as Ben had guessed when he met him. "Yeah Carleigh?"  
"Can you be a sweetheart and tell everyone to come in here? I have important matters I need to discuss with you all." She grinned as winningly as she could.  
Seldes paused for a moment. "You're trying to use Dominate on me, aren't you?"  
Carleigh was dumbstruck. Was it that obvious?  
The Nosferatu smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry, I'll get everyone." Seldes hobbled off in the direction of the stairs. Hopefully he could enlist the help of a few of the less posh members in rounding up the group. It wouldn't be easy; since everyone knew even by now that for Carleigh, 'discuss' meant her talking and everyone else listening respectfully. They wouldn't want to come. Oh well.....  
  



	22. Chapter 21

  
  
Monday, 3 November 1800. 1:00 a.m.  
Sitting room.  
Sharma appeared at the doorway and just stayed there. 'Well, fine,' Carleigh thought. 'She can hear us from there. And that makes everyone.'  
She stood up and cleared her throat. "May I have your attention, everyone! Hey! Listen to me!"  
"Do we have a choice?" Carid grunted from her corner by the bookshelves. Carleigh, as usual, pretended not to hear her. At least everyone was paying some form of attention now.  
"I have called you here this evening because I have just received word about the way our missions are to be conducted."  
"How?" Sobek demanded from the other side of the room. "There weren't any messengers here today. How could you have received word of anything?"  
Carleigh spoke through her teeth. "The council sent a letter along with the movers, if you must know, Sobek." it was actually true, too. "And as I was saying. The contents of that letter contain the specific instructions as to the assignment and completion of military missions.  
"Military? We're not an army." Courtney piped up. "You said we'd be traveling in PAIRS. Two people is hardly an army."  
"If I MAY continue!" Carleigh practically screamed. "The procedure is as follows." she picked up her notebook, which was already laid open to the correct page. "The council-assigned ghouls will be sent to us by the end of the week. We will receive our instructions directly from the council by way of these ghouls. Meaning the council will contact the ghouls here and the ghouls will contact us wherever we are.  
"Assignments are, as Ms. Hamilton implies, to be carried out by two members for the most part. If the assignment is a large or extremely important one, multiple pairs will be assigned to it. But the majority of operations should be sufficiently completed by only two.  
"Direct force is to be avoided. This is a covert operation, and targets will be destroyed while remaining ignorant of our presence. The key to the success of this group is that our targets remain unaware of our existence and attribute our actions to the clans or sects. If they do not know their enemy, they will not be able to fortify themselves against us effectively. Fort example, if they put up defenses against a Giovanni, we will send a Gangrel. Understand? The information on the defenses will be gathered by ourselves and sent back to the ghouls here. There will be times when one pair gathers information so that another pair can infiltrate and destroy. Notice I do not say attack. There will be no frontal attacks, and I have been instructed to emphasize that very clearly. Physical combat is to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. And if it is necessary, kill all who may have seen you."  
"Now we're talking." Sobek grinned.  
"The elimination of those who could identify us is central to our survival. That is all." Carleigh snapped the notebook shut. "Any questions?" she regretted those words the minute they were out of her mouth. She remembered all too well what had happened the last time she asked that.....  
"Yeah, I have a question!" Sugar Kelly stepped away from that painting she seemed so fond of and stood right in front of Carleigh. "Who the hell do you think you are? That's my question. Not only do you call us all in here to tell us things we could have figured out for ourselves, if you'd seen fit to show the rest of us that letter. And somehow, I don't think a letter from the joint council was personally addressed to you. Not only do you do that, but you don't even call us in here yourself! Oh, no, that would just be too much to ask. No, instead you send poor Seldes to drag himself all over this damnable mansion and the backyard to find everyone and tell them to come in here and listen to you talk at us. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I even heard you thank him for doing such a big favor for you. You think you can just give some order and we'll all just snap to it like good little slaves? Be ready and willing to drop what we're doing and come for one of these little meetings at your whim? This ain't the Camarilla here, honey. We don't all answer to the high and mighty Ventrue princes. We're not your ghouls. Seldes will do you a favor because he's the sweetest person I've ever met; I don't know about the rest of you. But don't even start thinking your entitled to his kindness. Or ANY of our obedience."  
Sugar didn't even bother to wait for Carleigh's reaction to her little speech. She just spun on her heel and left the room. She had apparently made some impact, though, because Sharma actually stepped out of her way when she reached the door.  
Everyone else sort of filtered out after Sugar, not looking at Carleigh, who was still standing like a statue in front of her chair. Amy considered using this opportunity to score some loyalty points, but at the last second she decided against it and followed the others out the door, shutting it behind her. Carleigh would probably appreciate the chance to be alone.  
Carleigh stood there, not even blinking until the footsteps of the others faded away. Once they were gone, she crumpled into her chair, covered her face with both hands, and cried.  



	23. Chapter 22

  
Monday, 3 November 1800. 7:15 p.m.  
Carleigh rolled over lazily and glanced at the small clock by her bed. Then awoke with a start. She had intended to be up right after sunset. She'd wanted to get out of the house and off to Geneva before anyone else was up.   
This whole arrangement was not working out at all the way she had planned. It had been only two nights, and already she felt as if she had to get away before she either went crazy or was driven to suicide. She hurriedly changed into fresh clothes (she had fallen asleep in the things she wore last night yesterday), splashed some cold water on her face from the basin in the corner, then hurried to gather her money and notebook. As she made to leave, she realized Courtney was not in her bed. And a good thing too, for she would certainly have woken the Lasombra with all her clamoring around. But it meant the others were up. Maybe she could sneak by them.  
She slipped out of her room as quietly as she could and tiptoed down the hall, which, thank the powers that be, was deserted. If only her luck would continue. She hoped she didn't run into any of the others. The only person who knew about her leaving was Courtney, and the Lasombra didn't seem the type to gossip with people below her supposed status.  
As loath as Carleigh was to drive her own carriage, she didn't dare ask one of the males to come with her. She didn't trust Ben to be able to control horses, Sobek would laugh in her face, and she didn't want to think about what the repercussions might be if she asked Seldes for a favor again.   
Then something occurred to her. It didn't necessarily have to be one of the males. She remembered the scene between Courtney and the Gangrel the previous night. yes, Michaela might be willing to do her a favor...if she asked nicely. She would deal with the problem of taking a very hairy Gangrel into the heart of the capital of a country later.  
Carleigh cautiously stepped into the front hall. No one there. She didn't allow herself a sigh of relief yet. If there was anyone in the kitchen...The door was closed, but it could open at any time.  
She tiptoed through the hall, winced as the oaken door creaked when opened, and slipped out onto the porch, turning her back on the yard to close the door behind her as gently as possible. It closed with barely a sound. She decided against looking for the Gangrel. She had gloves on; she could drive her own carriage. Never let it be said that the Ventrue were unable to be self-sufficient. She slowly turned, afraid of the porch creaking too.  
"Boo."  
Carleigh screamed bloody murder. Carid, who was standing not six inches in front of her, laughed hysterically. Carleigh clutched her breast as if trying to ward off a heart attack, nevermind that her heart beat its last almost two centuries ago.  
Once the Ventrue had calmed herself sufficiently to look past the cackling fiend, she saw why the hall and foyer had been deserted. Everyone was waiting out here.  
The carriage-which had been another of the gifts delivered yesterday- was already occupied by Amy, Ben, Courtney, Seldes, Mei, and Maria. Sobek was seated in the driver's seat, holding the reigns to the horses. Alectz clung to the back of the carriage, grinning inanely for no apparent reason. Sugar, Sharma, and Cathy were all on the backs of their respective horses, and Carid's horse was still tethered to the railing, but saddled and ready for travel. And Michaela just stood between Sharma and Sugar's horses, wearing, to Carleigh's great surprise, a long sleeved shirt that covered most of the fur on her upper body. Carleigh hadn't thought she owned any clothes beyond those ratty pants.  
The Ventrue's eyes fell on Courtney. "What is all this?!" She demanded.  
"What, you were planning to go to Geneva without us?" Courtney asked innocently.  
"You told everyone?!"  
"No. I told Carid."  
"And I told Cathy." Carid added.  
"And I told Seldes and Maria and Mei." Cathy contributed.  
"And I told Alectz!" Mei threw in her two cents.  
"And I told the faeries!" Alectz grinned even wider.  
"I suppose that's where this train derails....." Carleigh rubbed her temples. "Well, alright, if we're going to go, let's go." Where was she supposed to sit, she wondered, looking at the arrangement of seating in the carriage. She didn't have a horse of her own.  
"There's a seat next to Sobek." Ben said, as if reading her mind.  
The Setite scooted over a little, and Carleigh climbed up, disregarding how undignified it was to be riding with the driver. She deemed it best to let dignity take care of itself for a little while.  
Sobek got the four black horses in charge of the carriage started, Carid swung up onto her own horse, and everyone fell into step behind or beside the carriage. Except for Michaela. She walked next to Sugar's horse.  
"Are you sure you can keep up?" the Ravnos called down to her.  
"Yeah." Michaela answered simply.  
"Okay..." her roommate shrugged.  



	24. Chapter 23

  
  
Tuesday, 4 November 1800. 1: 54 a.m.  
an unpaved path through an alpine forest.  
"Hey!" Cathy shouted at the general assembly. "We should take a break soon! The horses are gonna wear out! Not to mention the Gangrel." she glanced at the girl who still jogged beside the horses.  
"I'm fine." Micheala shrugged. "But the horses look like they need a break."  
"Um...yeah." Cathy stared at her. "Are you sure you're okay? You've been running for how many hours now?"  
"I've run whole nights without stopping. And just for the record, this is not running."  
"Then....what is it?"  
"Jogging. Running is much faster."  
"Wow." Cathy was pretty impressed.  
"I think there's a clearing up ahead." Sobek called back. "And I think I hear a stream. We can all take a break once we get there."  
He stole a sideways glance at the Ventrue riding beside her. He had assumed Sugar's rant last night would have taken her down a peg or two, but he hadn't anticipated anything this bad. While the others in the carriage and even a few on the horses had kept up a banter of pointless small talk for the length of the journey, Carleigh had been utterly silent since they left. Of course, so had Sharma and Michaela (up to a moment ago) and himself as well. But that wasn't too incredible for an Assamite or a Gangrel or a Setite. A Ventrue was supposed to delight in pointless gossip.  
That Ravnos ought to think about a career as a public speaker.  
After a few more minutes of riding/driving/jogging, they reached a small clearing. And, through some amazing stroke of luck, it had a small stream running through it. This stroke of luck was so amazing that Sugar felt the need to comment on it.  
"Now isn't this nice. A random clearing with a random stream right where we need it, right when we need it. You know, you'd think someone had prearranged all this." she shook her head as she led Jack to the stream.  
"I like to think of it as a sign from the gods." Ben smiled.  
Carid spat in the dust before swinging off her horse. "What would any god want with the likes of us?" she sneered.  
"With the likes of you, you mean."  
The voice and its source were so unexpected that Carid couldn't even come up with a retort.  
Sharma didn't bother to check the reaction to her statement. She simply slid the horse's reins over his head and allowed him to drink from the stream.  
Carid stood there stupidly. If it had been anyone else who'd said that, she would have been ready with a biting comeback. But from the Assamite? What did the Assamite care about a god? And why was she standing with her mouth open?!  
Carid quickly snapped herself out of her trance and jerked her horse towards the stream, trying not to hear the scattered snickers from the rest of the group.  
Carleigh in particular was quietly grinning. It felt SO good to see that cynical Tzimisce embarrassed, especially after all the times she had embarrassed Carleigh.  
Sharma ran a hand over her horse's flank. She didn't care that the Tzimisce was shamed, though that was a nice side benefit. The Toreador had been wrong about the nature of God as well. Allah did not go around sending benevolent 'signs' to just anyone. Allah showed favor towards his worthy servants.   
And though Sharma was indeed Allah's servant, she did not presume to count herself as worthy. 'God' had nothing to do with the stream or the clearing. All this she contemplated in a brooding silence, under the inquiring eyes of the Nosferatu still in the carriage.  
Seldes watched Sharma intently as she went about brushing down and watering her horse. The Assamite had an obsession with honor, that much was for sure. But while Seldes normally believed himself to be very adept at reading people and recognizing their motivations, he was at a loss to decipher the girl who was his roommate. Of course, it was easy enough to apply all the natural Assamite stereotypes to her. Obsession with honor, service to Allah as well as Haquim (that might have been what the comment about gods referred to), rigid discipline, code of silence, dislike for other clans, and high opinion of oneself.  
But though he was repulsed at the idea of attributing stereotypes to anyone at all, all of those seemed to fit Sharma all too well. Or maybe he just hadn't seen past her masks and layers of outer defenses yet. That would be something he would have to work on. She wouldn't be as easy as some others he had known... For those, three nights to figure them out would have been massive overkill. But for Sharma? No where near enough. Three hundred nights of study and effort might not be enough to crack her shell.  
After about half an hour of rest, Amy suggested they get moving if they wanted to reach Carleigh's factory before morning.  



	25. Chapter 24

  
  
Tuesday, 4 November 1800. 8:03 p.m.  
basement of a small (but growing!) textiles factory  
"What do you MEAN you don't know if there's an alchemist?! Doesn't anyone ever get sick in this town?"  
"We have to go soon, people! The shops are gonna close!"  
"I can't wait! I love shopping! I wonder what Swiss dinner clothes look like....."  
"What kind of moron buys clothes only to wear them to dinner and no where else?"  
Carleigh rubbed her temples, trying to block out the banter of her companions. It had been so good to get back to her own people--even if they were just the ghouls of her own people. She had never in her wildest moments thought she would ever be so happy to see Richard. Though that didn't stop her from making the mental note that the ghoul had defied her orders and stayed in the country. Another shortcoming to hold against him. Another improvement to her night.  
But now everyone was clamoring to go out. Well, there was no need to baby sit them. If they wanted to go, they could go. She told them as much.  
"Wow, you mean you're relinquishing control over your flock? Unbelievable." Sugar muttered. Carleigh pretended she hadn't heard that...again.  
"Hey...where's the wolf girl?" Sobek asked, glancing around the basement.  
"Outside the city." Sugar told him. "She said when we were coming in that the smokestacks and houses were the ugliest abominations she had ever seen in her unlife. But I got her to promise to meet up with us tonight."  
"Okay then, let's just get going before the shops close!" Maria called impatiently.  
"What do you want with embalming fluid, anyway?" Mei asked the Giovanni as the group filed out the back door. "I thought your clan was only concerned with bringing ghosts back from the dead...and money and temporal power and all that other stuff that doesn't really require embalming fluid."  
Carleigh didn't hear Maria's answer. Nor did she particularly care what it was. She sighed happily, glad to be alone in the darkness. After a few moments of enjoying the blessed silence, she hurried up the stairs to the factory.  
"Well, Richard. Seeing as how you haven't left the country as I had expected, perhaps you will allow me to make use of your presence by asking you to show me the workings of this plant."  



	26. Chapter 25

  
  
Tuesday, 4 November 8:30 p.m.  
Geneva by Night.  
"Shouldn't we presenting ourselves to the prince or something? The capital of the country should have a prince." Ben wondered as he and Seldes searched for a tailor's shop that was still open at this hour. The Nosferatu had put on what he called a 'mask', which was actually just the Nossie version of fleshcrafting. In the form Seldes took now, he could have been Ben's older brother, they looked that much alike. A big contrast from Seldes' natural form.  
Seldes thought for a moment, then shook his head. "This is supposed to be an undercover operation. If we went to the prince, we would have to explain what we're doing here. And besides, we're just visiting the city. We're leaving tomorrow night."  
"I guess you're right." Ben shrugged. "Oh, hey! There's a light on in there!"  
The Nosferatu and the Toreador ran down the cobblestone street as fast as they could.  
  
Mei gazed intently at the skull candle on the stand in the corner of the shop. She had long tuned out to the sound of Maria arguing with the alchemist, even though she had come here to see what a Giovanni would want with embalming fluid.  
Alectz had been with them for a little while, but the Malkavian had taken off to 'go play with the stars' several minutes ago.  
The little Cappadocian wandered over to the table that served as a business counter. Maria was still screaming at the poor alchemist.  
"What do you mean you don't carry it?! What kind of establishment is this?!"  
"One that does not deal with the trafficking of corpses!" the man shouted back.  
"Then what's the POINT?!"  
The man decided he'd had enough of this crazy girl and her little sister. "GET OUT OF MY SHOP!!!"  
After five more minutes of arguing, Mei and Maria were ejected from the shop by the alchemist and his two apprentices/thugs.  
"Can you believe that?!" Maria huffed in indignation. "The nerve of that guy! If only I could get in touch with my family.....That shop wouldn't BE there tomorrow night!"  
"Now, now..." Mei patted her shoulder. "You can take it down just as well without your family. All you need is a box of matches."  
Maria stared at her. She had expected the sweet little girl to say something along the lines of 'violence is not the answer', or otherwise try to talk her out of destroying the shop.  
"Actually, drawn out death might be more fun. You have anything we can make a poisonous gas out of?" Mei asked.  
After a pause, Maria grinned. "I think I just might...."  
  
Sugar belted another drink and banged her empty glass on the bar, demanding another. This was where she was supposed to meet Michaela. If they were going to be partners, they should at least learn where to find each other. When Michaela had separated herself from the rest of the group last night, she and Sugar had agreed that if they were ever separated, they would meet up at the nearest pub. If Michaela was looking for Sugar, look inside because Sugar would be getting smashed, and if Sugar was looking for Michaela, look around the back because Michaela would be playing with the rats in the garbage.  
An ideal arrangement.  
Particularly for Sugar. She had lifted six purses in the last twenty minutes alone. And there was no need to leave, because none of the more smashed patrons had even noticed her. And the less smashed patrons had only noticed her to try to pick her up. Of course, these were subsequently fully smashed....with her fist.  
Ah, it was great to be a vampire! You could enjoy alcohol without losing your wits -unless you wanted to, of course, and she sometimes did- and you could knock down a white slaver or potential suitor with a flick of your wrist. Then there was the increased stealth that came with being a Ravnos. Never run out of money or nice things.  
Sugar couldn't understand why some people were so afraid of unlife. Or why some called it damnation. If this was torture, chain her to the wall.  
The bar door swung open and Sugar saw Michaela's reflection in the glass behind the bar. She raised a hand and waved over her shoulder to the Gangrel. Michaela, still clothed in the white shirt and now that they were in the city, a pair of high boots that covered her calves, walked over to Sugar and took the stool beside her. Sugar had seen her toss those onto the back of the carriage last night. She wondered why the Gangrel hadn't worn them while running, when they might have done some good in protecting her feet.  
"Hola." Sugar greeted her partner. "Want something to drink?"  
"No." Michaela said simply. "Must we stay here?"  
"Until I get another shot of whiskey, yes."  
Michaela opted not to argue anymore; she just sat there and looked uncomfortable.  
After a few moments of awkward silence and Sugar's being ignored by the bartender, she decided it was time for a little bonding.  
"So, where you from?"  
Michaela looked up at her. Conversation? Well, anything to get her mind off the volume of humans around her. "The Kingdom of the Netherlands...." she told Sugar.  
"Cool. You speak Dutch? That's such a weird language....Not that weird is a bad thing."  
"Of course I speak Dutch....." Michaela said as if it were the most ridiculous question in the world...which it was.  
"I'm not sure where I'm from." Sugar said as she finally got her whiskey. "I'm full blood Rom. But I'm blonde. Everyone thought I was cursed." she took a swig of her drink. "My mortal life wasn't too fun. What was yours like?"  
Michaela frowned. This was getting a little personal. Oh well, she had never been above telling any of her own clan members about something as unimportant as her mortal home.  
"My father was a merchant. My mother was a malcontent. I did my father's account management for him from the time I was ten. Then I was Embraced."  
"At ten?" Sugar asked jokingly.  
"Seventeen." Michaela answered, not jokingly.  
"Well then." Sugar smashed her glass oh the counter. "That's for ignoring me!" She called in the direction of the barkeep. "Come on, let's go." She said to Michaela. The Gangrel was only too happy to comply.  
Once they were outside, Sugar began to go through the purses she had collected.  
"Where did you get all that?" Michaela asked.  
Sugar grinned. Apparently the wolf girl wasn't too far above stupid questions herself. "From the bar."  
"OH." Michaela said, realizing what should have been obvious.  
"Yeah, you're gonna like traveling with me." Sugar grinned. "We'll never be hard up for cash."  
"We live on blood. What do we need cash for?"  
"What about transportation?"  
"What's wrong with your horse?"  
Sugar shook her head.  
  
Courtney sighed lightly, gazing up at the cloudy sky. She had been walking the streets aimlessly for what seemed like hours, not really thinking about anything at all. There was little for her to do here. All the dress shops had closed half an hour ago (the price they paid for stalling so long), and she had no need for the various other commodities she imagined the others were looking for. Come to think of it, she had no real need for more clothes either. Since her things had arrived the previous night, she would be just fine until the next fashion upheaval came around, and if she monitored the cycles of good taste correctly (which she usually did), they weren't due for one of those for another decade. So everything now was just more of the same.  
Very dull. In fact, this whole trip had been very dull. Not to mention annoying. First she had been forced to sit in a badly driven carriage with a collection of Camarilla and Independent Kindred who ranged from those who disgusted her to those who made her want to scream in frustration for nearly an entire night, then subjected to sleeping in a filthy basement with said Kindred, and now stuck out on the streets with absolutely nothing to occupy her.  
If this were London, she could easily visit some of the more posh clubs and be set until dawn. Even though most of the most of the mortal clubs claimed to only admit men as members, well dressed ladies were welcome to visit from time to time. Those were just an opportunity for food, though. The real fun happened at the Sabbat-run gatherings. On the second floor, you had the socializing, and on the first, you had an area in which those who had grown tired of socializing could rip each other's heads off without disturbing the less psychotic patrons.  
Who says the Sabbat doesn't know how to have fun?  
The clubs in London were also valuable centers for the forming of powerful connections and good places to learn how to manipulate fiends and antitribu. NOTHING like those pointless Toreador soirees.  
Courtney kicked angrily at a pebble. She missed London. There was nothing to do in this pathetic excuse for a city at night except drink at the local inn/bar. She sighed, more heavily this time. Oh well. She had to feed, didn't she? It wasn't the caliber of her usual fare, but it would have to do. She hoped she could find an inn somewhere out of the way, where the others (particularly that damnable Ravnos!) would not be likely to happen upon as well.  
She walked, a little more quickly, across the road and down an alleyway that seemed to provide a decent shortcut to the other side of town. But she hadn't taken twenty paces before she felt a hand descend upon her shoulder.  
"Welcome to our humble abode, my lady. Won't you join please join us inside?" a male voice rumbled tauntingly.  
Courtney turned to face him. And his two friends. They weren't drunks, she could see that much. Just your average degenerates.  
How irritating.  
"Such a lovely young lady shouldn't be out so late." One of the other men sneered, circling around behind Courtney, apparently thinking to block her escape.  
"Don't worry, we won't let anything happen to you." the third grinned.  
Courtney felt a cool blade press against the back of her neck. "So long as you don't make any trouble." the second degenerate added.  
Courtney didn't say a word, just gazed steadily at the man who had spoken first.  
"No kind words, my lady?" he said with mock gentility. "Is that any way to treat your hosts?"  
Behind the man and his snickering companion, a long tendril of shadow began to slowly work its way up from behind the garbage and debris scattering the alleyway.  
"Now don't you even think about moving, my lady." the guy with the knife sneered once more. "I'd hate to damage this pretty white skin."  
The shadow arched up behind the two men before Courtney and split into two long ropes. The second man, standing behind her, suddenly realized that a shadow was not supposed to move like that. He dropped his knife and screamed.   
His friends saw the direction of his gaze and spun around just in time to see the animated darkness for a moment before it wrapped itself around their heads, throats, and legs. Their arms flailed for a few moments, desperately tugging at the stranglehold of the shadows, but to no avail. With a satisfying crunch, their skulls were crushed under the weight of the constricting tendrils.  
The man with the knife, who had watched this all in petrified horror, suddenly recovered his wits and made a run for it. He slipped on the loose gravel in his haste, but managed not to fall. Courtney allowed him to almost make it to the street, allowed him to think for just one instant that he had escaped, then sent another shadow warrior to shatter the bones of his legs and drag him back to her feet. The cry of anguish he released when his momentary hope was shattered was every bit as musical to Courtney's ears as the piteous wails of a thousand others like him in nights before. It was so gratifying, that moment that they realized their efforts were in vain, that they would not escape.   
The man writhed in terror under the gaze of the girl he had assumed to be helpless. The bands of shadow curled around him, crushing him more slowly than his companions. Such was his punishment for bringing a weapon to her neck.  
"Wh-What ARE you?!" he gasped out just before his rib cage imploded.  
"The spawn of hell." Courtney sneered down at him, mocking the expression that up to a moment ago, was on his own face.  
The man's body writhed in agony one last time before the shadows ground his body and bones to blood and dust.  
Courtney stood for a moment, admiring her handiwork. The shadows retreated back to their hovels and all was silent again.  
The Lasombra stared at the pile of filth by her feet. "That was a pathetic question to waste your last words on." She said to the pulp as an afterthought, before she deftly stepped over the mess and back out into the street.  
She almost didn't notice the messenger horse that tore down the other side of the street in the direction of Carleigh's factory.  



	27. Chapter 26

  
  
Tuesday, 4 November 1800 10:33 p.m.  
Geneva by Night  
Ben and Seldes emerged from the tailor shop laden with packages.  
"That was so much fun!" Ben gushed. "But it got so late! Now we don't have time to go buy new shoes."  
"Well, maybe of we go early tomorrow night we can get some before we leave." Seldes suggested. Of course, when he said 'we' he actually just meant Ben. None of these clothes were for him either. Fashions were meant to worn by people who stood straight up regularly. Seldes could do it, but his back killed him if the mask wasn't up. But it had been fun watching the Toreador get so excited over such little things.  
"We should probably go back now; all the shops are closed." Ben sighed. His friend nodded in agreement, and they turned towards the tall smokestacks of the factory. Ben couldn't wait to get back and try all these new things on. He wondered what they would look like in different combinations....  
"Ben, look out!" Seldes jerked his friend backwards, sending a couple of packages flying.  
"AAH!" Ben screamed, both at the surprise and at his things falling. Luckily, they didn't open when they hit the ground. He jerked his head up and saw the horse that had almost run him over skid to a halt then turn back to them.  
"Carleigh?!" Seldes and Ben exclaimed in unison as the rider's face came into view.  
"Seldes, Ben! Both of you, get back to the factory, NOW." the Ventrue called, sounding half-panicked.  
"We were going there anyway...."  
"Carleigh, what happened?" Seldes demanded.   
"I'll explain after I find the others! Just GO!" she yelled, before spurring her horse rather violently and taking off down another side street.  
Both boys stood there in stunned silence.  
"Well," Ben finally said. "At least she came herself."  



	28. Chapter 27

  
Tuesday, 4 November 1800. 11:02 p.m.  
Factory basement  
"So would someone like to tell me what the hell was so important that Queen Pederston went looking for us HERSELF?!" Sugar demanded of the general assembly, which by now was everyone but Courtney and Carleigh.  
"I don't know! How should I know?!" Cathy snapped, assuming the question to be directed at her. "She just comes riding through the city like a maniac and tells us all to come back here!"  
"She threw away our gas bomb!" Mei sobbed from the corner. "We were gonna kill people and take all their money!!!" Maria patted her shoulder consolingly.  
"Don't worry, Mei." She said. "We can destroy them after we hear what Carleigh has to say."  
The little Cappadocian still sniffled a bit, but she seemed to be partially consoled.   
Ben was busy checking his clothes, particularly the ones that had been dropped. Through some amazing miracle, none of them had been damaged.  
"Where are those damn ghouls of hers?!" Sugar paced angrily. "They must know!" She ran up the basement stairs to find the ghouls.  
But just before she reached the doorknob, it swung open to reveal Courtney, herded in by a very annoyed Carleigh. Sugar jumped out of the way.  
"Could you possibly have been a little further from our base?!" Carleigh gasped angrily, clearly still out of breath from riding and yelling.  
"How was I supposed to know you'd come looking for me?!" the Lasombra exclaimed indignantly, "And if you'll forgive me for saying so, this wreck of a place isn't much of a BASE!"  
"No I will not forgive you for saying that, but that's besides the point!" Carleigh raged. "We have much more serious things to worry about right now." she stepped to the center of the room, and as always, to the center of attention.  
Carleigh pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and held it up. "This is a message from the council. It was addressed-" she looked pointedly at Sugar at that word- "to the ghouls in charge of this factory."  
That caused a bit of a stir. Why would the council have sent something important to a bunch of Ventrue ghouls?  
Carleigh paused, not for dramatic effect but for trying to find the words to summarize the message. "It says....they wrote to the ghouls to tell them to try to warn us."  
Everyone was paying more attention to Carleigh at this point than ever before. Not even Sugar or Carid had a snide remark to make; the Ventrue had never sounded so serious.  
Carleigh took a deep breath and continued. "The council has been disbanded. This message was sent even as they fled their haven." she swallowed hard. "They write that the tide has turned against them. Those who branded this mission as a conspiracy have won a following...the messenger who brought this believes that the council members have been destroyed....we're not sure by who exactly. But whoever they are, they want to destroy this whole operation...and anyone involved in it."  
"Oh my god..." Ben choked. "They've-they've called hunt on us?!"  
"No." Carleigh said quickly. "I don't think so. There's no hunt. But the clans have turned against us. The letter says they expect them to attack the house where we were staying--" she was cut off by Sharma and Michaela nearly colliding with each other as they shot out the back door into the street.   
Most of the assembly stood there stunned for a minute, then Carid and Sugar bolted out on the heels of the Gangrel and the Assamite.  
"No, wait!" Seldes shouted in vain.  
"Where are you going?!" Maria shouted after them.  
"Where do you think they're going?!" Sobek spat. "Back to the house!"  
"NO!" Carleigh ran out into the street after them, nearly tripping over Michaela's discarded shirt and boots. The Gangrel was already disappearing into the distance, running faster than anything Carleigh had seen. But the others were still untying their horses.  
"Stop!" she yelled, grabbing the bridle of Carid's horse just as the Tzimisce was jumping onto it.  
"Let me go!" Carid jerked the horse out of her grasp.  
"Are you crazy?! You can't possibly fight them!" the Ventrue screamed desperately as Sharma swept past her after Michaela. "They're ready for you! For all of us! They'll kill you if they find you!"  
"Thanks so much for your concern!" Carid sneered, spurring her horse to full gallop.  
Sugar and Jack were right behind her, and in a matter of seconds, all four had disappeared into the night.   
"And you'll lead them straight to the rest of us, you bastards!" Carleigh screamed after them.  
"Carleigh, take it easy." the Ventrue felt a cool hand on her shoulder. Amy patted her arm consolingly. "Even at that speed, there's no way they'll get there in less than six hours. Remember, it took us a whole night to make this journey. According to the letter, the council was afraid it was already to late for us when they SENT the message. Those four won't make it there in time to finish or start anything."  
"But what happens even if there's no one there when they arrive?" Seldes asked. "What if the house was burned down? I mean, Michaela will be fine, but where are the rest of them going to stay for the day?"  
"Maybe they'll have some sense and stop at a town for the day..." Maria suggested tentatively.  
"Oh, yeah RIGHT." Sobek snorted. "A Gangrel, a Tzimisce, a Ravnos, and an Assamite. How much common sense could they possibly have between all four of them?"  
"That's not very nice." Ben chided him.  
"NICE?!"  
"Okay, okay everyone!" Amy silenced them. "Let's stop disturbing the peace and get back inside. We can't do anything about those four now."  
Slowly the group filed back into the basement and settled back down. Most of them were stunned, unable to comprehend the idea of their own clans turning against them.  
Seldes picked up the letter from where Carleigh had dropped it in the dust. He read it in silence for a few moments.  
"So what's it say? Besides that we've all been branded as traitors." Courtney called.  
"We...haven't really been called traitors....have we?" Ben looked around for some sort of reassurance.  
Seldes sighed and began to read the letter aloud. "We know not why, but the tide of the clans has turned against us. Those who would accuse us of trying to hold dictatorial power over all clans have won a following. Some clans call us traitors, others call us conspirators, still others call us dangerous madmen. But for whatever reason, we have reason to believe that each of the participating clans has withdrawn their support of our venture. We fear that their unprecedented outrage is so great that those who have been assigned to this mission will not be accepted back into the folds of their people--" at this line, Seldes himself felt his legs grow weak. Not accepted back into his clan? It couldn't be.....it wasn't possible. He couldn't continue for a few minutes.  
No one else was feeling too strong at this point either. Anyone who had been standing a moment ago was now sitting, too stunned to believe what they had heard. Seldes thought he heard Ben quietly crying in the corner. He didn't blame him.  
Finally, he found the strength to continue. "Though there may be some that still support us, they have not risen to aid us against those who do not. We beg you to try to reach representatives and hurry them to evacuate. They cannot hope to fight the force that is converging upon them. Find them and warn them, though we fear it may already be too late." he lowered the piece of paper. "That's all there is."  
After a long pause, Carleigh spoke. "What are we going to do?"  
"I thought you were the leader." Courtney said with surprisingly little malice.  
"Leave her alone." Maria snapped at the Lasombra. "Or are you saying you need a leader?"  
"And you don't?" Courtney glared at her. "What the hell are we supposed to do now, anyway?! Our clans have rejected us, we're inches away from a blood hunt..."  
"But there is no hunt." Seldes interjected. "They didn't call one. That means they must not have had the support of all the clans." everyone stared at him. "oh, come on! You all know that to call bloodhunt on two members of separate clans, you need the consent of the eldest elder in both clans. So, by extension, they would have had to have the consent of all the elders of all our clans to call a hunt."  
"And because they didn't call a hunt, it means they didn't have the permission of all the elders!" Cathy summarized.  
Seldes nodded.  
Courtney frowned. This was too much like that single moment of hope before you were dragged screaming back into the shadows. She never thought she'd be on the receiving end of her favorite game.  
Sobek glared at all of them. "Oh sure. Be happy now. The elders didn't order our deaths. So what? Do you think that means they're now going to protect us? And tempt the force of whoever these people are? Are you all of such importance in your clans that you think the your superiors will stick their necks out for you?!" he waited, relishing the lack of response and the disappearance of hope from the others' faces. "They didn't call hunt because a hunt would take time and energy. They don't care if we're alive or dead. One or two or fourteen lives matter nothing."  
Even Seldes couldn't come up with a hopeful response to that.  
"So...what do we do?" Mei asked.  
No one made an answer.   
The entire group sat in a cold silence for a several minutes. No one knew what to do, say, or even think.  
The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of laughter lilting through the air outside.  
"Hey, Carleigh?"  
"Yeah?"  
"When you were doing your Paul Revere imitation, did you manage to find Alectz?"  
The Ventrue paused. "Oops. Forgot about her."  
"Oh, that's nice, Carleigh!"  
The nine remaining members ran outside to find out where Alectz was and what she was laughing about. The Malkavian was perched on top of the roof of a boarding house across the street from the factory.  
"Alectz!" Mei called. "What are you doing up there?!"  
The Malkavian just laughed some more.  
Mei stamped her foot. "Alectz! Come down here!"  
Alectz threw her head back. "Do you hear it?! It's coming faster now! Won't be long!" she cackled again. "Don't you see it?!" she pointed in the direction Michaela and the others had taken off in. "The light! It'll be here soon! I sure hope our mushroom is enough to hide us from it!" her light cackle erupted into a maniacal explosion of laughter. "Will they make it? Will they live? But none of us live, do we?! The oak is asking the birch how to live! But the birch doesn't know! It doesn't know! BWAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!"  



	29. Chapter 28

  
Wednesday, 5 November 1800. 4:57 a.m.  
Home  
Michaela crashed through the trees, caring nothing for stealth. She came to a stumbling halt in the clearing.  
The house was still standing! That in itself was a relief. And no one was there. At least, not that she could see. What if they hadn't come at all?  
Unwilling to believe that, though, Mika crept around the side of the house and peered in through the tall, curtainless, and now broken windows of the sitting room.  
They had definitely been here. Not only was the window smashed, but the room was in shambles. Someone, or multiple someones, had obviously torn apart anything that could have been possible to hid in, around, or under.  
As if they would have hid. Michaela couldn't think of a single person in the group who wouldn't have met any assault head on. Well, except maybe the Toreador. But everyone else would have gone to the mat to defend this place, just on general principle.  
She backed up a pace and leapt through the hole in the window, managing to avoid knocking out any of the shattered glass. For all she knew, the invaders might still be here. The fact that it was less than two hours until dawn was of little import. Didn't they have safe rooms upstairs?   
She crept through the wrecked furniture with all the stealth of the wolf she was. Moments of intense listening and smelling told her that no one was in the front hall either. She slipped out the door and, sticking close to the wall, made her way to the staircase.  
Whoever had done this certainly hadn't been kidding around. The banister was destroyed, splintered in about fifteen places. Peering through the broken oak, Mika could see the door to the kitchen torn off its hinges, and in the doorway.....blood? She instantly ducked into a hunting crouch.  
She slinked towards the door, expecting to see a body of some sort. Instead, she could see nothing but puddled blood and broken glass. Then it hit her.  
The food.  
Of course they had destroyed it. The deserted house gave the impression that the group had fled, but just to make sure they wouldn't be able to return, the invaders had destroyed their sustenance.  
Mika hoped everyone had taken the opportunity to feed in Geneva.  
Walking to the foot of the stairs, she listened intently to any sound the house might make. Her nose carefully tested the air, checking for anything that didn't belong. There were smells, alright. But they had not been fresh for over an hour. There was no one here. Even if they were upstairs, she would be able to smell them by now.   
She was too late to kill them.  
That last let down, the assurance that she would not have her kill tonight, made the adrenaline drain from Michaela's body, and only then did she realize how weak she was. She hadn't lied when she said she could run a whole night without stopping. But that didn't mean the effort didn't take a lot out of her. She gripped the remains of the banister for support. She should have fed more in the city. But there was no point of thinking that way. What she should have done was immaterial, she hadn't done it, and now she was paying for it.  
She lurched toward the door of the kitchen. The blood on the floor hadn't dried yet; it seemed the kitchen had been the last thing the invaders ransacked. She collapsed to her knees and then to her stomach. She brushed the fragments of glass out of the way and lapped the spilled blood up from the stone floor.  
Before she had drank enough to even give her the strength to get up, the sound of the creaking door made her ears perk up. She didn't dare turn around to see who had come in. Damn it, she was in plain view! Best to just lie here. People never expected much from someone lying in a pool of blood.  
She heard a light gasp and realized she had been noticed. Then the smell of the newcomer reached her over the scent of blood around her. The Assamite.  
"They're gone." She said, before going back to drinking up the blood from the floor.  
Sharma jumped. She had thought the Gangrel was dead or fatally wounded. What was all that blood? She stepped closer and saw the glass fragments. Then she realized what the wolf girl must be doing. Sharma couldn't blame her. It was a long distance to run.  
"Are you sure?" she asked.  
Michaela lifted her head from the liquid. "Yes. Their scent is dull. They've been gone for a while."  
The Assamite relaxed a bit. "The Tzimisce and the Ravnos were following me, but I don't know if they'll make it before morning."  
Michaela picked herself up into a sitting position. "Want some?" she indicated the spilled blood.  
Sharma stared. "Thank you, but I fed quite adequately in the city." As if she was going to lick blood up off the floor even if she hadn't.  
The Gangrel shrugged and got up. Her fur was still dripping with the blood she had fallen in. "You came in through the front door." she observed.  
"I prefer to meet potential foes head on." was the Assamite's only reply.  
Michaela shrugged once more. It still seemed sloppy.  
At the sound of hoofbeats, Michaela moved towards the still open door. It might have been the enemy returning. More likely, it was either Carid or Sugar.  
It was Carid. The first thing the Tzimisce saw was that the house was still standing. The second thing was Michaela standing in the doorway half soaked in blood.  
"Don't tell me I missed all the fun." she looked disappointed.  
"Yeah, you did." Michaela told her. "But so did I."  
"Then what happened to you?"  
"Nothing."  
"Then why.....oh, never mind." the Tzimisce swung off her horse and tossed its reins over the railing of the porch. She didn't seem concerned about it running off this time. And with good reason. The animal looked like it was about to die. She must have ridden him full gallop all the way up here.  
Michaela turned and went back in the house, Carid right behind her. Sharma emerged from the sitting room a moment later.  
The three of them stood there staring at each other for a solid minute.  
"Well, this is awfully fun," Carid finally spoke up. "But does anyone maybe have any ideas about what the hell happened here?! Or even better, what we're going to do now? It's nearly dawn."  
Sharma took a deep breath. "We'll just stay in our rooms for today. Tomorrow night we'll decide what happened. After we've all rested."  
"Great idea." a new voice came form behind them. All three turned to see Sugar Kelly standing in the doorway.  
"Nice to see you made it, Ravnos." Micaela greeted her.  
"Thanks!" she smiled. "Oh, but about the rooms thing. Have you guys looked at the top of the stairs? What do you think those are?"  
The three looked up in the direction she was pointing: the top step of the staircase. And they all saw the pile of torn black cloth spread out on it.  
"The curtains..." Carid moaned, covering her face with one hand.  
Sharma muttered some curse in Hindustani.  
"Well, it makes sense...." Michaela sighed. "Why would they destroy the downstairs and our food supply and not destroy our safe rooms?" she shrugged. "I think I'm the only one who isn't in trouble right now."  
The other three glared at her.  
"Well, maybe if we found one that wasn't totally destroyed and got it up before dawn, we could all just bunk together." Sugar suggested. "Except for the wolf girl. She can sleep in the yard."  
"Somehow, I don't think they were considerate enough to leave us one perfectly sized for the windows." Carid frowned.  
"Well, do you have any better ideas?"  
"Not really." The Tzimisce admitted. "But we haven't got a lot of time. We should probably look for some other kind of shelter."  
"Tell you what." Sugar said. "I'll go look for a decent sized curtain and you guys go try to find a few small dark places."  
"Okay."  
The four Cainites separated and went about their tasks. Sugar hurried up the stairs and began examining curtains, Sharma went back into the sitting room, Carid went past Sugar to try to find some prospects upstairs, and Michaela waded through the puddles of blood in the kitchen to look in there. Even though she wasn't going to need shelter, it wouldn't kill her to help.  
Half an hour later, search efforts had proved fruitless and three out of four vampires were getting very worried.  
"Maybe we should try outside..." Sugar suggested after kicking the pile of ribboned black cloth down the stairs. "There might be some caves nearby or something...."  
"We'd never find one before daybreak." Sharma said tensely. "I hope your Fortitude is viable."  
"Under the beds." Carid announced. "We hang some cloth over the ends of the beds and hide under there."  
Sharma and Sugar looked at each other.  
"Any better ideas?"  
"Not really."  
"Bring the cloth up here, will you?"  
Sharma didn't even bother to protest in defense of her dignity. She scooped up the pile of curtains and began to go up the stairs to the others when...  
*CRASH*  
All three of them jumped at the noise from the kitchen. They exchanged a glance then ran in to see what the hell had happened now.  
"Gangrel?" Sharma called. "What have you done?"  
"Note...to self." the Gangrel's voice said from places unknown. "Blood covered flooring is....quite slippery."  
"Are you okay?" Sugar almost laughed.  
"Where ARE you?" Carid called, though she didn't really feel they had time to be looking for her.  
"In the wall." Michaela said simply.  
Sugar circled around Sharma and looked behind the semi-intact kitchen table.  
Indeed, the Gangrel was in the wall. Her legs and lower body were sticking out of it, in fact.  
"What on God's green earth did you do?"  
"I think I found your hiding place." Michaela sat up grinning. "There's a staircase back here."  
"WHAT?!" the three others crowded around her.  
She pulled herself up from the broken wall. "It might have been nice to tell us about the secret haven...." she muttered. "Well, there you go." She kicked some of the splintered wood out of the way to reveal an unsafe looking staircase leading down into the darkness. "I'm going outside." With that, she hopped over the table and trotted out the back door.  
Sugar, Sharma, and Carid stared at each other for a moment.  
"Should we go down?"  
"Do we have a choice?"  
"Does anyone have a candle?"  
After a bit of debating, they decided to just get out of the sun before they were incinerated and worry about what the newfound emergency haven looked like tomorrow night.  



	30. Chapter 29

  
Wednesday, 5 November 1800. 8:15 p.m.  
The yard behind the house  
Mika came up from the earth much later than usual that night. While she reprimanded herself for laziness, she knew how badly she had needed the rest. Feeling a little better, she went back to the house.  
The first thing she noticed was the blood was being soaked up by the some of the remains of the curtains. Not too bright; what were they going to eat here if that stuff got thrown away? Though they might be planning to squeeze the blood out of the cloths into something more usable. Even if they weren't, she planned to suggest it.  
The busted door had been turned on its side and pushed up against the hole on the wall that Mika had discovered the previous night. The broken chairs were piled up in a corner and she could see the whole or mostly whole ones standing in the front hall. Apparently, the others had gotten up early and gotten straight to work.  
"Hey, Gangrel!" Mika looked up as she walked into the front hall. Carid was standing at the top of the stairs. "So nice of you to join us. Come up here, I need some help." Mika scampered up the stairs and followed the Tzimisce into her room.  
"Hold this." Carid said, indicating the large table she had lifted from the ground. It seemed to be missing part of one of it's legs. Mika crossed the room and held up the table while Carid took what was apparently the missing table leg and slid it into place. She then grabbed a piece of the curtains that was lying on the floor and tied it around the leg and it's broken counterpart.  
"There. That'll have to do for now. Thanks." She said as Mika released the table. "I can't believe this. My operating table. All the way from Constantinople, too."  
"Um...isn't that part of the world called Istambul these days?"  
"I don't care. My sire called it Constantinople and so do I." Carid said resolutely. She suddenly got up and glanced around the room. "Oh...there it is." she pulled a small shiny blade out of the pillow on the other side of the room. "I hope it didn't get any negative Tremere engeriges on it....." she said, wiping it in her shirt sleeve.  
"What's that?" Mika craned her neck to get a better look.  
Carid held it up proudly. "A scalpel."  
"A...what?"  
"A state-of-the art operative tool. Designed to cut delicate incisions and cause quite a bit of pain if you push it through the right muscles." she grinned. "I'm glad they only stabbed it through the pillow. It might have broken...."  
Mika nodded, now understanding. A torture device. Naturally. "Hey, who was responsible for the cloth on the blood puddle downstairs?"  
"Sugar, I think." Carid shrugged. "She was up first."  
"You weren't planning to throw it out, were you? What are we supposed to eat?"  
Carid put her scalpel down on her writing desk, a piece of furniture too bulky to be badly damaged. "Can we save it?" she asked. "Most of it was clotted up."  
"I'm not sure, but I don't know where else we're going to get food. Unless you guys want to come hunting with me and we can all drink animal blood." Mika shrugged as Carid wrinkled her spiked forehead in disgust. "It's not too bad, really. You'd probably be able to take it if you just didn't think about where it came from."  
Carid considered for a moment. "Hey! Don't Assamites have some sort of...thing they have with transporting blood?"  
"Uh....I guess they must, if they're supposed to take a blood tithe back to their base with them when the complete a contract."  
"So let's ask Sharma to go collect animal blood!" Carid grinned triumphantly.  
"Maybe she and I could go together." Mika suggested, remembering Sharma walking right in the front door of the house. Such a tactic was workable for battles, but you had to sneak up on animals.  
"Alright. Come on, let's go find her." Carid started out of the room, Mika on her heels.   
Carid was halfway down the hall when she realized the Gangrel was no longer with her. She looked around, confused, then doubled back to the doorway of her room.  
"Michaela?"  
The Gangrel had clearly made it to about the edge of Amy's bed. Now, she was crouched down beside the torn mattress, sniffing the surrounding area for all it was worth.  
"What are you doing?!" Carid asked incredulously.  
Michaela didn't answer.  
"Gangrel?"  
Still no answer.  
"Does the Tremere smell that bad?!"  
Carid was about to give up and go find Sharma when...  
"It's not her."  
"What?"  
"It's not the Tremere...something else...."  
"Um...what?" Carid stepped a little closer.  
"Stay there!" Michaela barked so forcefully the Tzimisce actually obeyed. "Your scent throws me off...."  
"Well, excuse ME...." Carid slipped out of the room, more than a little disturbed. But she judged it best to just let the Gangrel do whatever it was she was doing.  



	31. Chapter 30

  
  
Wednesday, 5 November 2:49 a.m.  
the upstairs hallway  
  
"Hey! Somebody come here!" Sugar's voice called.  
Carid looked up from the broken table she was lugging out of Carleigh and Courtney's room and glanced back and forth down the hallway. "Where are you?"  
"Here!"  
Suddenly, a crash from the far end of the hall made her spin around in shock.  
"First the Gangrel and the wall, now you and the ceiling!" Carid gaped. The Ravnos had kicked out a square of the ceiling out over the decorative table at the end of the hallway. From above. "The people who tried to kill us last night didn't do this much damage!"  
Sugar's leg disappeared back into the ceiling and her head appeared upside down from the hole. "There's an attic up here!"  
"Dare I ask how you found that?"  
"Not unless you REALLY want to know."  
Carid decided she didn't.  
"Did they tell YOU this place had four floors instead of two?" Sugar asked, still upside down.  
"No. Just the first and second...but you remember, the basement was actually walled over. The council might not have not even known about that. And that attic wasn't exactly in plain sight either."  
"I knew those guys were senile...." Sugar swung back up into the attic. "Well, we couldn't use this for a haven. There are windows all over the place--hey!"  
"What?" Carid looked up through the hole in the ceiling.  
"They're coming!"  
"Who?! The--" she floundered for a word for them "--people who were here last night?!" she finally managed.  
"No!" Sugar suddenly jumped down from the opening, nearly knocking Carid out. "Carleigh and the others!"  
"What?!" The Tzimisce exclaimed as they both took off down the hallway. "I thought for sure they were gonna stay in Geneva!"  
"Yeah, me too." Sugar agreed as they descended the stairs and nearly charged into Sharma, who was dragging some broken wood out of the sitting room.  
"What's going on?!" the shocked Assamite demanded.  
"Carleigh and the others came back." Carid called over her shoulder. "And that might be worse than getting whoever did this again." she thought she saw Sharma nod in agreement.  
The three of them came out onto the porch just as the carriage pulled up and Cathy's horse came to a halt at the broken railing.  
"What the hell are you guys doing here?!" Sugar exclaimed.  
"Amy said you were all still alive, so we figured it was safe." Carleigh called, jumping down off the seat next to Sobek.  
Carid rolled her eyes. Tremere magic. They were all so stupidly trusting. What if the warlock had been wrong and the lot of them ended up walking right into a trap?  
"Plus, we wanted to bring some things we thought you'd need." Seldes said, gesturing to the pile of packages on the floor of the carriage.  
"Like blood, maybe?" Sugar asked. "They smashed our food supply, you know."  
"What?!" about five of the others exclaimed in unison.  
"What do you mean, 'they'?" Sobek demanded.  
"'They'." Carid said simply. "The people who vandalized this place. We don't know who they were, so we'll just call them 'they'."  
"What did they do?" Carleigh asked, a hand rising to her throat in shock and dread.  
"You see the railing?" Sharma pointed to the splintered wood. "That's just the start of it."  
"What about our stuff?!" Courtney practically screamed, flying out of the carriage.  
"They broke my operating table." Carid informed her as the Lasombra darted past her.  
"How can you not know who did this?!" Carleigh demanded as the rest of group followed Courtney's lead and went to see what had become of their personal belongings. "Didn't you find any hint?!"  
"They weren't as considerate as to leave a card." Carid sneered.  
"We started trying to clean things up earlier tonight." Sugar changed the subject. "But our food supply is history. I hope you all fed."  
"Actually, the Gangrel and I had an idea about how to deal with the lack of sustenance." Carid mentioned as the remaining four members went back into the front hall, which was still strewn with broken furniture. "But then she started sniffing the Tremere's bed like it was her favorite dead animal and I lost her."  
"What was it?" Sugar asked. None of them noticed as Carleigh began frantically tearing around the hall, kitchen, and sitting room.  
"Well, the Assamites have some way of transporting blood, right Sharma?" Carid asked.  
"Those methods are a clan secret." Sharma said suspiciously.  
"Hey, I didn't say I knew HOW you did it. But we were thinking that you and the Gangrel could go hunting and bring back some animal blood. At least until we develop a way of hunting humans."  
Sharma stared at her. "You are asking me to reveal a secret of the Assamite clan that has been guarded with my people's lives since the days of the Eldest?!"  
"What if we all promise not to look?" Sugar shrugged.  
The Assamite's response was cut off by a shrill scream from above them.   
"My TABLE!!!!" Courtney's voice wailed. "Look what they've done to my table!!!"  
"Oh, that." Carid muttered. "They should've broken that into smaller pieces, I think I dislocated my back dragging it out."  
"You should've left it for her to do herself." Sugar smirked.  
"Well, how was I supposed to know they were coming back?"  
Carleigh stormed out of the sitting room. "Shut up, Lasombra!" she screamed up the stairs at Courtney. "What do you think you're complaining about?! It was probably your own clanmates that smashed you damn table!"  
Suddenly, Courtney was at the top of the stairs, pure rage in her blue eyes. "What did you just say?!"  
"You heard me." Carleigh snarled. "Who do you think did all this? Some Toreadors with pointed paint brushes?!"  
Courtney was down the stairs now and right up in Carleigh's face. "Why don't you just spit it out, you Ventrue filth?! You think the Sabbat did this!"  
"Think?! What do you mean, think?! I know it! And you damn well know it too. I wouldn't be surprised if you--or that fiend over there--had something to do with this from the start!"  
Carid deemed this the right moment to get involved. She grabbed Carleigh by her shirt collar and nearly lifted the Ventrue off the ground. "We tipped the Sabbat off did we?" she hissed. "We called them and told them to come here and smash our stuff? Is that what you think happened?!"  
Carleigh didn't seem to be dissuaded by the Tzimisce's death grip on her. "Why were you in such a hurry to get here, huh?" she sneered. "Wanted to get here in time to be taken back to your own clan? Did they come a night early? Was that the problem?"  
Carid's eyes went crimson with rage.   
"What the HELL, Ventrue?!" Sugar exclaimed. "In case you've forgotten, there were FOUR of us riding back here last night! It wasn't just Carid!"  
Carleigh ignored her. "I knew we never should have made a deal with the Sabbat scum! What can you expect from your kind but a stake in the back?! You don't have a scrap of loyalty or honor in you, not even for your own kind!"  
"You excrement!!!!!!!!!!" Carid shouted, raising her free hand to knock off the Ventrue's head.  
"SHUT UP!!!!!"  
The shout sounded so much like the roar of a lupine that everyone actually did shut up and look to the source.  
Michaela Greywauld stood at the top of the stairs, looking every bit as angry as Carid. "You're an idiot, Ventrue." she said in a more normal tone, then descended the stairs to where Carid still had the Ventrue collared.  
"The Sabbat did not do this." she said directly to Carleigh.  
"BAH!" the Ventrue spat. "How would you know?!"  
"How could you NOT know?!" Michaela challenged. "The house is still standing, you fool. Do you think the Sabbat would have attacked this place without burning it on their way out? That's their trademark, isn't it? If the Sabbat was here last night, why is the building here tonight?!"  
"You call me a fool!" Carleigh yelled in her face. "That's exactly what they want us to think! They're trying to throw us off the traaaaAAAH!"  
*CRASH*  
Carleigh was sent careening into a pile of broken chairs. Carid brushed her hands off. The Ventrue was even easier to throw than the Tremere. "You really are a fool." she spat. "We're not like you. When we do something, we admit it. We don't 'throw people off the track', or deny our involvement in the fires that burn throughout Europe! Unlike you guilty fools, we have no conscience to make us ashamed of what we do. And we care nothing for 'security', either. If you could have destroyed us, you would have done so by now. We fear nothing from any of you. When the Sabbat does something, the world knows about it!"  
"Plus, the packs are total pyromaniacs." Courtney added. "You couldn't have gotten them out of here without something being burned."  
"Exactly." Michaela said.  
Carleigh struggled to pick herself up. "Fine then, oh wise wolf. If the Sabbat didn't do it, who did?"  
"Smashed furniture, broken bottles...." Sugar mused. "Sounds very Brujah." Luckily, Cathy was out of earshot. "In other words, very Camarilla."  
"Impossible! The Ventrue organized this from the start!"  
"And we all know how closely Ventrue stick to their principles when threatened with loss of support." Sugar sneered.  
"And how do you know it wasn't your kind?!"  
"We would've taken the stuff, not break it." the Ravnos said simply.  
Having lost that battle, Carleigh turned to vent her aggressions on Michaela, who was now standing with her back to the rest of them. "Is that what you were getting at, Gangrel?! In case you've forgotten, your clan is Camarilla too!"  
"I don't know what Kindred were here...." Michaela said, after a pause. "but I know who I smelled upstairs."  
"Oh, right!" Carid exclaimed, remembering the incident with the Tremere's bed. "What did you smell?"  
Michaela sighed heavily. "........Humans" she said darkly.  
"WHAT?!" was the exclamation of the hour.  
"Humans?!"  
"No way. Not possible."  
"You mean ghouls, right?"  
"NO!" the Gangrel barked. "I do not mean ghouls. I mean the Society!"  
Now there was no word of the hour. Everyone just stared in stunned silence.  
"Like...the Society of Leopold?!" Sugar gaped after a few moments.  
"I'll never forget that smell...." Michaela growled. "They were here, mark my words."  
"Hold on. Just hold on a minute." Carid lifted her hands defensively. "You're saying the Society did all this?"  
"I know what I smelled."  
"Um...ignoring the absurdity of that statement..." Sugar muttered.  
"Wait, what about the letter?!" Carleigh demanded. "The letter from the council. Are you saying that a band of mortals destroyed a group of elders? They made it quite clear that the attackers were their opposition."  
"That letter could have been forged." Sugar pointed out.  
"But all the same, how could they have known where to find us except by actually attacking the council?"  
By this time, most of the group had filtered out onto the stairs and were quietly witnessing this conversation.  
"The Society is far more than a 'band of humans'." Michaela muttered.  
"But you can see why I'm suspicious, I hope!" Carleigh huffed. "I mean, I know they're strong, but really! THAT strong?!"  
"If they could do that to the elders..." Ben whispered.  
"They couldn't have!" Maria snapped. "I don't care how powerful these people are supposed to be; the elders are stronger!"  
"You put too much faith in them." Cathy muttered.  
"Quiet!" Carleigh cried. "We have to think!"  
There was a long pause, in which just about everyone assembled was doing nothing but hoping someone else was actually able to think of something.  
"...What if it wasn't the Society who killed them?" Sobek finally spoke.  
"Then who?" Amy asked.  
Sobek shrugged. "This is just a theory...but what if there were Kindred working with the Society?"  
Yet another statement to stun the room.  
"That's......crazy!" Ben gasped. "Kindred would never work with the Society!"  
"The Society would never work with Kindred!" Amy pointed out in addition. "That could never happen!"  
"But you don't know that." Courtney said. "There are some pretty crazy Camarilla out there."  
"Oh, can we just stop it with the sect arguments!" Seldes yelled in frustration. "Fighting amongst ourselves gets us nowhere!"  
"He's right." Mei's childish voice spoke up. "We all need to stop arguing. It's very detrimental to progress."  
Everyone stared at her for a second. None of them had expected a word that big to be in Mei's vocabulary. The kid was just full of surprises. But now the group had bigger fish to fry.  
"This is getting us nowhere." Carid sighed. "All we've established is that we don't know. All we know is the Society was here. Everything else is nothing but speculation."  
"That's assuming the Gangrel's right."  
"I said I'd never forget that smell." Michaela growled. "I meant it."  
"Okay, let's just trust Michaela's nose for the moment, okay?" Sugar cut in. "Alright, we don't know. So how do we find out?"  
Michaela finally turned to face the group. "This is what I think. You can listen to me or not. But I think we should do what we came here to do. Spy on the Society. Find them out and destroy them. Bit don't let them know we're there. Just do whatever we can to learn about them and damage them and maybe then we'll find out what happened here."  
The others paused for a moment, considering.   
"Not a bad idea." Carid said finally. "I might even be tempted to say a good idea."  
"But what about our clans?" Ben asked. "If this was the Society's doing, then they didn't order it. They haven't rejected us!" he sounded so happy all of a sudden.  
"We can't let them know." Carleigh said firmly. "If we do like the Gangrel says, keep this a completely covert mission, we can't let any of them know. Besides, if we are to operate on the basis of the possibility of a mole to the Society within the clans, how can we tell anyone we are still even alive?"  
"And how do you think they found us in the first place?" Sobek pointed out. Ben looked utterly crestfallen.  
"But then how can we stay here?" Amy said suddenly. "What happens if and when they come back?"  
"They won't be back." Michaela said with absolute certainty. "They think we've fled. This will be the last place they think to look for us again. More likely they'll check our home countries or former havens if they believe us to still be a threat."  
"Alright then, are we agreed?" Carleigh asked the general assembly. "We do what we came here to do and tell no one about it?"  
There were no voiced objections.  
"Hold it." Maria held up a hand. "How are we supposed to find them? The elders were supposed to get us started on this, right? Does anyone even know how to track the Society?"  
"I think I may be able to help with that." Amy volunteered. "If I can put together a workroom somewhere, I can create a stream-of-consciousness crystalline alert system."  
There was a collective blink.  
"In English, sil'vous plait?" Cathy said.  
Amy shook her head. "I can cast a spell that will tell us where they are. If I can have a workroom."  
"Maybe you can use part of that basement we found." Sugar suggested.   
"Basement?"  
"Well, then, that's settled." Carleigh smiled. "So this is it?"  
"I feel like we should be swearing some kind of oath at this point...." Ben mused.  
"Well, if you want to be dramatic..." Carleigh smiled. She pushed one of the still standing tables to the center of the hall. "Everyone come stand around here. Where's Alectz?"  
The Malkavian came running out of the kitchen. "Here she is!"  
"Um...okay. Come stand."  
The fourteen Cainites stood around the table, not touching it for fear of making it collapse.  
"May I?" Carleigh looked round the faces of the others, particularly at Sugar.  
"None of the rest of us know what to say." the Ravnos shrugged.  
"Alright then." Carleigh cleared her throat. "We are no longer beholden to the council, or to any elders. Until we complete our mission here, and that is to destroy the Society of Leopold and its sisters and to uncover the treachery in the ranks of our people, we swear no allegiance to any clan, but to the Childer of Caine as a whole. We serve our race against a common enemy, regardless of clan or sect differences. We are The Thirteen."  
There was a brief pause.  
"But aren't there fourteen of us?" Mei's little voice rose in confusion.  
"MEI!!!!!!!!!" the others shouted as a unit.  
"That could have been such a MOMENT!"  
"You ruined it!"  
"Oh, sure, 'The Fourteen' sounds real good....."  
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Mei wailed, trying to hide under the table.  
Carleigh stared at the spectacle. Her speech....  
She glanced to her left and somehow locked eyes with Carid. Suddenly, they both just burst out laughing. And they continued laughing while the others all mauled Mei for ruining a wonderful dramatic moment.  



	32. Chapter 31

November 20, 1800. 2:48 a.m.  
road up to the house  
Sobek craned his neck around to look at Cathy and Maria, who were desperatley trying to keep the beams of wood in the carriage.  
"Are you okay back there?"  
"Wonderful!" Cathy screamed in frustration as one of the beams almost impaled her. "I've got an idea. I'll steer the horses and YOU try to keep these in place!"  
The Setite turned back around. "There's no point in stopping. We're almost there."  
"Tell me it doesn't get any steeper!" Maria wailed. That was their main problem. The beams were to big to fit in the bed of the carriage, so they had to be placed across the ends while the two girls stood on either end and held them in place. And that had worked just fine on level ground. Now, on the incline up the mountain, they kept threatening to slide off the back. That had even happened a couple times. Which only created more problems, because if you let go of the beams on the carriage to pick up the fallen one, they all slid off.  
Which is why the trip between their home and the mountain village of Calvicht, a journey which normally took less than two hours, was taking over five.  
"WHY did we need all this wood again?!" Cathy yelled for the tenth time that night.  
"We're fixing things." Sobek rolled his eyes. "Just like we've been fixing things for the past two weeks."  
"Can't someone else do this part?" the Brujah moaned.  
"Then what would you like to do?" Maria arched an eyebrow. "Trade jobs with Carid, and get to chop this up? Trade with Seldes and sand everything down? Trade with Ben and make all this stuff look somewhat like it should to match the rest of table, chair, etc, be that carving or painting? Or trade with Sugar, and pound it all back into place? Or--"  
"Alright, alright, fine!" Cathy barked.  
Sobek surpressed a snicker.  
They pulled up to the front of the house a few minutes and one fallen beam later.  
"Whew!" Maria exclaimed, releasing her hold on the wood an allowing it to slide to the ground. Let Carid deal with it now. Speaking of the Tzimisce...  
Carid appeared from around the corner of the house. "Oh look." she sighed. "More wood. Dare I hope that we're just building a bonfire?"  
"Sorry." the Giovanni called, wiping her hands on her pants. Boy, it was a good thing her mother/sire wasn't here to see this! "Carleigh said something about tables, chairs, AND the banister. That's why there's so much of this."  
Carid grumbled as she flounced over to the wood pile and grabbed one of the beams. "Who the hell put her in charge, anyway? Why should she gat a blasted administration position while the rest of us do hard labor?" she swung the beam (which was one by one by eight) over her shoulder and turned to go back the way she had come.   
The Tzimisce circled to the back of the house and dropped the beam down in the pile of sawdust that had become her work area.  
Several feet to her left, Courtney looked up from the wet clothes she was tossing over a drying line. At first, the Lasombra had objected in the strongest possible terms to laundry duty, but when forced to choose between that and helping Seldes sand wood....it wasn't too hard a choice to make.  
"What are we putting back together tonight?" she called to Carid.  
"How would I know?!" her sect-mate grumbled. "I'm not a Ventrue, I'm not an organizer, I don't know anything...."  
"Bitter?" Courtney smirked.  
"Just a tad." Carid grinned. "Well, I hope Maria was right about the tables and chairs thing, 'cause I'm chopping these thin." she grabbed the ax stuck in the ground a few feet away.  
"But what if she meant the top of a table?"  
"These aren't wide enough for that."  
Courtney shrugged and went back to hanging the laundry. Carid hefted the ax to her shoulder and looked at the beam. Now how big were these chairs supposed to be? Not that that was really her problem; but she couldn't chop them too small.  
"Carid!" Carleigh burst out the back door, looked at the Tzimisce, then breathed a sigh if relief. "Oh, good, you haven't started."  
Carid did a mocking bow. "Of course not, your majesty. How could you ever believe I would even get up in the evening without leave of your divine grace?"  
Carleigh rolled her eyes. She was getting very good at ignoring Carid's sarcasm by now. "Look, just chop that one and the next two at about a half meters' length. We're going to try to fix the banister. I'll let you know what to do with the others when you're done."  
"Oh, THANK you." Carid bowed again. "I don't know how your clan is getting along without you, Carleigh, you're just such a wonderful organizer."  
Carleigh was already back in the house at this point.  
Carid shook her head, mentally measured half a meter on the block of wood, delibertely overshooting in case of any sanding and sculpting Sel and Ben might have to do, and brought the ax down in one smooth stroke.  
Across the yard, Courtney looked from the laundry again. "Do you realize it's been almost a month since we came here?"  
"Yeah." Carid answered, not ceasing her chopping. "Almost a month and we still haven't DONE anything. Can't that stupid witch hurry up and finish her crystal-tracker-whatever? I'm sick of venting my agressions on wood."  
"What I'd like to know is where is she supposed to get this crystal?" Courtney pinned up a shirt as she spoke. "We can't contact our clans. And I don't think they sell magic crystals in Calvicht or Geneva."  
"Calvicht never has anything but wood. Wood wood wood. You'd think the kine there ate wood." Carid muttered.  
Courtney laughed. "But speaking of eating," she added, "when are we going to feed tonight? I mean, the blood we're living off of now tastes like ten kinds of Setite poison, but at least it's blood."  
"I dunno. Michaela and Sharma aren't back yet."  
"And why is there always so little of it? They have to go every single night and then they just come back with barely enough to feed everyone." she complained. "Why can't they just get a lot of it and then leave it here?"  
"Well, we don't have any ice, do we?" Carid reminded her. "And besides, its almost winter. Can't be easy to find anmals around here this time of year."  
"If it's winter, why hasn't it snowed? I mean, we're how many feet above sea level? It should have started snowing up here over a month ago."  
"Why the hell are you complaining about a lack of snow? You want snow? With the amount we'd get up here, we'd have to leave the house by the upstwairs window, if not the attic."  
"Like we're leaving..."  
"Okay, true."  
Carid severed the last half meter segment from the beam, then went looking for a saw to put these into more banister-like width.  



	33. Chapter 32

  
  
November 20, 1800. 3:57 a.m.  
the north forest  
Michaela glanced around the nearly bare trees in agitation. This was not good. This was really very not good. A whole night of hunting and all they had were three rabbits and some large rats.  
"Should we keep searching, or would further effort be futile?" Sharma voiced the Gangrel's concerns.  
"I don't know." Michaela admitted. "It's almost December. Most of the big animals have gone into hibernation. The only ones we're going to find at this point are the ones who got confused by the lack of snow and came out to see if winter had skipped a year."  
They both paused for a few seconds.  
"There's no way in heaven or hell we're going to feed fourteen vampires with this." Sharma finally said.  
"Tell me about it." Michaela sighed heavily.  
There was another pause, as two Cainites not accustomed to sharing their thoughts moved off into separate little worlds.  
After a solid five minutes, Sharma looked up. "Have we considered feeding in the village?"  
"Calvicht? Too risky." the Gangrel answered. "The towns so small, vampire rumors would spread before we could blink. And the last thing we need is a pitchfork mob calling attention towards us."  
"I suppose not." Sharma admitted. Stupid idea. She was so busy focusing on having been proved wrong and trying to think of a better idea that she didn't notice the animal-like howls singing through the night air.  
At least, not until Michaela nearly collapsed.  
"Gangrel?" she called across the clearing. "What is wrong with you?"  
Mika shook her head. "Nothing." she croaked.  
Sharma hopped over a fallen log and went to her ally's side. "What happened?"  
Mika sighed heavily and covered her face with both hands. "Do you hear that?" her muffled voice asked.  
"Yes...." the Assamite nodded, finally marking the howls. "Is that someone calling you?!" she would assume Gangrel communicated int he same way wolves did.  
Mika groaned. "My sire."  
"You told him where you were going?"  
"No...." she shook her head and crossed her arms. "But I came here with a couple of ghoul canines. They probably went back to him..."  
Sharma stared hard at her. "You can't answer. You'll give us all away."  
"But he'll come here if I don't go and meet him. Do you not realize that?"  
"Then there is only one choice." the Asdsamite stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest. "You must go to him, but tell him you were the only one who survived. Then go back to your haven and never return or speak of this. It is the only honorable way."  
Michaela's shoulders sagged and she gave Sharma and exasperated look. "Can YOU sucessfully lie to YOUR sire?"  
Sharma realized the validity of that question and looked down at the ground. Of course Michaela couldn't lie to her sire. No one could lie to their sire. At least, that was what she'd heard.  
Mika sighed. "I may be able to get him to leave and not say he's seen me. He'll probably do it. And I might be able to get some information out of him on what the official Camarilla position is on what's happened. But beyond that..." she paused. "...I just can't let him think I'm dead."  
With that, she bounded off into the trees. A few seconds later, Sharma heard her answer the continued howls.  
The Assamite just stood in the clearing holding their catches for a moment. She should go back, even if it did mean facing the others with little sustenance. But the Gangrel's last statement had struck her as odd. She couldn't let her sire think she was dead? Did it really matter that much to her sire? Sharma had no illusions that her death would be any great blow to her clan. Least of all to her sire, mainly because he was completely dead. Her mentor might be angry if Sharma was killed. But only becuase it would mean all the rafiq's years of hard work gone to waste. Not because she had any great love for Sharma.  
Well, if the Gangrel had a closer realtionship with her sire than that, more power to her. It wasn't Sharma's affair. She turned and made her way back to the house.  
  



	34. Chapter 33

  
November 20, 1800. 4:08 a.m.  
North forest  
Mika let out another howl. Where the hell was he? She glanced around listening carefully. She heard a twig snap behind her and turned around just in time to have her face pressed against what used to be a completely white tunic.   
"Erk....Selendrile? Please let go of me...." she croaked, struggling a little against the strong arms surrounding her.  
After a particularly tight last hug, her sire relaesed her and stepped back. He cleared his throat.  
"Well, Desmona will be pleased that you're still with us."  
Mika burst out laughing. Sure, he was all business now.  
Selendrile cocked his left ear forward, his trademark gesture of annoyance. She continured giggling. Considering the fact that his ears were those of a wolf and were placed neatly atop his head, that gesture of annoyance was really quite cute.  
"You don't take me seriously. That's the problem with this relationship." Selendrile shook his head. "Other neonates respect their sires. And then there's you."  
Mika grinned. "Yeah, sure, you're the perfect serious, noble loner. Prime example of our clan."  
"You insolent little whelp. I don't know why I'm so glad you're alive. I really don't." her sire grinned back.  
"I'm not alive."  
"Well, if you're going to be picky, then I don't know why I'm so glad you're still moving."  
"Master!" an excited shout interrupted their banter.  
"Stop calling me that!" Mika snapped even as the young girl ran up and threw her arms around Mika's neck.  
"Oh, did I mention she wouldn't let me leave her with Canis and Odin?"  
"No, actually, you didn't. Yes, Ana, I'm alive. Or, well, moving. Let go of me. Why is everyone mauling me tonight?"  
"Because we thought you were dead, Master. Completely." Ana answered, deliberately emphasizing 'master'.  
"Don't make me strangle you. Why must you call me that?"  
"Well, because you are."  
"Technically, the dominator IS the master of the ghoul." Selendrile added.  
"Why must you work against me?"  
"Because."  
"Great reason."  
"Master, what happened?" Ana intentionally changed the subject. "Are you alright? We heard about the council being destroyed."  
Mika sighed and leaned back against a tree. "That was what I wanted to ask you. We don't know much; only that the council was destroyed and that the house they gave us was ransacked. We aren't sure by who, we weren't there when it happened. But in one of the rooms upstairs...." she looked up at her sire. "Do you remember in Edinhoven? The smell of the church where the Society centered their Inquistion?" Selendrile nodded darkly. He remembered all right. "It was that same smell. By one of the beds."  
Selendrile and Ana both stared in shock. For a Gangrel, or even a Gangrel ghoul, finding someone's scent was the equivalent of finding their fingerprints. If not more serious.  
"So we're going to stay here until we've figured out what exactly happened." Mika contined. "Since we know the council was destroyed, we think there might be Kindred working with the Society against us."  
A low growl sounded from Selendrile's throat. "That's the most...unlikely combination I've ever heard of!"  
"I know that!" Mika threw her hands out in frustration. "But we don't have any other explanation. We just don't KNOW. So that's why we're staying. To hurt the Society in any way we can and in the process find out what happened." she paused, observing the agitated expression on her sire's face. "You have a problem with me killing Society members?!"  
"Of course not!" he snapped. He began to pace around the tiny clearing. "But if you're right..." he paused, stopping in his tracks. "If you're right, and the Society has really allied themselves with vampires..." he shook his head. "They're going to a lot of trouble to get rid of you all. A LOT of trouble."  
Mika sighed. "I know, I know. But I have to stay. I've spent the last century hunting lupines; I can take care of myself." not seeing any of the thinly veiled concern leave his face, she added, "I'm not a childe anymore."  
"You're MY childe." he reminded her. "My only one. I would appriciate it if you didn't get yourself killed."  
She lowered her head, knowing full well that that was a close to a sentimentla statement as any Gangrel ever came. "I'll be fine."  
They stood there for the next few minutes in a silence that really wasn't at all awkward.  
Finally, Mika looked at the sky. "It's going to be morning soon. The others are going to want me to check in. And you still haven't told me what the outside world is doing about all this."  
Selendrile sat down on a nearby log, sweeping his tail out of the way as he did so. "Well, from what we can tell so far, every clan is blaming some other clan, but none of them are doing anything about it. Basically, they say that they didn't want it to happen but now that it has it doesn't really bother them. None of them even asked about what may have happened to the people they sent. Except us, of course."  
Mika nodded. She figured she probably wouldn't be mentioning that to the others.  
"And according to Xavier," Selendrile continued, "the Camarilla has said that they 'do not condone what has happened to the Switzerland Project, but they feel that it was in the end for the best and that future relations between Camarilla, Sabbat, and Independant should be much more limited'." he rolled his eyes. "A big long bureaucratic way of saying they don't give a damn."  
"Wonderful." Mika sighed. "Well, we don't need them. Amy is putting together some magic tracking thingy that will let us monitor the Society by ourselves. We can handle it. Trouble, is the council members were supposed to send us ghouls to do the actual monitoring and tell us where we had to be and when..." her voice trailed off and her gaze shifted to the girl standing to her left. "Ana...did you have any plans for the next couple, oh, years? Decades?"  
Ana gave her a sidelong glance. "I have a feeling I do now..."  
"Very perceptive." Mika grinned. She glanced at the rapidly paling horizon. "Selendrile. Can you keep it a secret that I'm still around? We're trying to prevent chance of betrayal if there is a mole in the Camarilla."  
"Sure. But I have to tell Desmona. She threatened to call blood hunt on whoever did this if you ended up dead. Feel loved."  
"Oh, right. Well anyway, I have to get back before sunrise. Ana's coming with me."  
"Fine." he nodded. "She's your ghoul in the first place." He got up. "I'm glad you're safe. I'll be back from time to time to let you in on anything momentus that happens, alright?"  
"Alright. We do need some contact with the Kindred world." then she added, "And please don't worry about me. You know how tense I get when I know you're worrying about me."  
"I won't worry." Her sire smiled.  
"Good." Mika smiled back. Then she ran off into the trees, Ana in tow.  
Selendrile watched her go, the turned his attention to the fading sky. He would stay here today, but he'd have to start making the journey back to Amsterdam tomorrow night. But there was still a little time.  
There. It was almost gone, but he could stil make out the star on the horizon. "Look after her, alright?" he said quietly. "Make sure she doesn't build bonfires in the sitting room or anything."  



	35. Chapter 34

  
  
November 20, 1800. 5:22 a.m.  
upstairs hall  
"Hey!" Mika called. "Everybody come out here!" Thanks to a trip to Geneva a week ago, the rooms had been refitted with black curtains, allowing everyone to move out of the basement.  
"What the hell? Are we being attacked or something?" Carid's annoyed voice asked as the doors opened and Mika's allies came out to glare at her.  
"No. But I just didn't feel like waiting until tomorrow to do this." she pushed Ana forward. "This is Ana. She's my ghoul. We were supposed to get ghouls from the councl. But the council is collectively dead. So we're gonna use her for message conveying and such, alright? And no, I didn't contact anyone. She and my sire came looking for me. But he left, and he's not going to tell anyone anything; he hates the Society as much as I do." she paused. "Alright, that's it."  
"Great." Sugar muttered.  
"Well, at least we have a ghoul..even if it's only ONE ghoul..."  
"One is enough." Amy said, before turning back to her room.  
Everyone was back in their rooms in a matter of moments. The sun was rising fast.  
Mika turned to Ana. "Well, you've got the whole day to yourself. I should get in. Amy will probably tell you what you're doing with her crystal thingy tomorrow night." she turned to go to her room.  
"Yes Master." Ana responded obediantly.  
"Stop calling me that!" Mika shouted over her shoulder as she vanished into her room.  
  
Ben flopped down on his bed, more than a little miffed. "Why her ghoul? How come she could bring her own ghoul?"  
"Shut up." Sobek grunted, already under his sheets.  
"But why?" Ben refused to shut up. "Why do we have to use the Gangrel's ghoul? Why's she the only one allowed?"  
Sobek sat up and glared at his roommate. "Because she's the only one who came, you moron! You heard the Gangrel. Her sire and ghoul came looking for her. I didn't notice any of your precious retainers coming back to see if YOU were alright." he sneered, words cutting like a knife. With that, he snuffed out he gas lamp that was still burning on his side of the room and plunged them into darkness.  
But he wasn't to get any sleep for the next hour or so. The sound of Ben crying quietly on the other side of the room kept him up until the Toreador finally wept himself to sleep.  



	36. Chapter 35

  
November 20, 1800. 9:37 p.m.  
kitchen  
"I'm....starving....." Courtney moaned.  
"I'm sorry, but what do you want us to do?" Michaela asked. "We can't make it be spring and therefore we can't make the food come out."  
"AAAGH!" the Lasombra screamed. "What are we supposed to do then, starve?!"  
"Hey!" Carleigh slammed her fist down on the table. "Silence! Look, I've got an idea. Let's all go back to Geneva for a few nights. I was sick of animal blood anyway. I think the factory's still standing; we can stay there."  



	37. Chapter 36

  
  
  
November 20, 1800. 10:05 p.m.  
front hall  
"So, who's coming?" Carleigh asked after posing her idea to the assembly.  
"Again with calling us all in the same area. Can't you just let it go through the grapevine that we're leaving?" Sugar demanded. "Why must you be so bureaucratic?"  
"Grapevine?!" Carleigh groaned. "Do you really want to wait for that? Are you people not hungry?! I want to leave tonight!"  
The general consensus was in favor of going. Mainly because the voting parties were as hungry as Courtney.  
"Good. Oh, and Sharma? Bring your blood carrying thing....or whatever it is you use. We want to get a supply started."  
The Assamite nodded.  
"I'm afraid I won't be able to join you." Amy said. "I'm almost finished with my...tracking device."she opted to use it's smple name.  
"Alright, well, we'll bring some blood back for you then." Carleigh nodded. The others filtered out either upstairs to pack for the next couple nights or outside to saddle their horses.  
"Should I leave Ana here?" Michaela asked, seating herself on the staris. She didn't have any packing to do.  
"Yes, I need to show her how to operate the crystal. That is, I need to show her how to receive the readings. I could never make her understand how it actually functions. But she doesn't need to know that."  
Mika tactfully ignored the slight on her retainer's intelligence. "Fine. I'll tell her I'm leaving." she paused a moment. Amy nodded and turned to go.  
Michaela leaned her head back and let out a rather high pitched howl.   
"Aaah!" Amy jumped. "What did you do that for?!"  
"Yes, Master?" Ana emerged from the sitting room in the next moment.  
"Oh." Amy murmured to herself. "I see." she shook her head made to return to her basement workshop.  
"Ana, we're all going to Geneva for the next few nights. For blood." Michaela told the ghoul. "All except Amy, that is. She's finishing her tracking thing, so you're gonna stay here so she can tell you how to work it."  
Ana nodded. "Very well, Master."  
"Stop calling me that." Mika responded automatically, knowing full well that it would do no good.  
"Yes, Master. Will there be anything else, Master?"  
Mika groaned.  



	38. Chapter 37

November 21, 1800. 7: 33 p.m.  
Geneva by Night.  
The store owner gave his two remaining customers an exasperated look.  
"Hey, you boys! Hurry up, I gotta go home!  
"We're sorry!" Seldes cried, scooping up the packages of seeds he had selected and rushing to pay for them. Ben, with his collection of flower seeds, was right behind him.  
"I don't know what you boys are doing out this late anyway..." the middle aged man muttered as he added up the cost of the seeds and took their money. "You must have heard the stories. You young people always do. But then you just brush it off, think that just because you've never seen a vampire that they don't exist..."  
Seldes did a double take. "Vampires? Did you say vampires?"  
"You haven't heard? A few weeks ago they found some men with low blood pressures and blanked out memories of the night before. Not to mention two of the younger men found....horribly murdered in that alley." he shuddered. "Everyone thinks that the men in the bar were drunk, and the ones in the alley were killed by wolves. Nonsense. Wolves in Geneva? And as for the drunks, that's what vampires do, you know. They find victims that no one will believe; deliberately do it, too. They don't want us to know they exist." he saw the shocked looks on the boys' faces. "You think I'm just a crazy old man, don't you? But I tell you, low blood pressure and no memory are the clearest symptoms of vampiric assault! My grandmother, God rest her soul, used to tell me that vampires once roamed all the cities by night. I believe they do still, only more quietly. They know that some of us know." he paused. "So you boys better get home quick, or you may never get there alive."  
"Y-yes sir. Thank you sir." Seldes said quickly before he and Ben hurried out of the shop.  
"Alright, who was feeding on drunks?!" Seldes demanded once they were a block away.  
"I don't know..." Ben shot an anxious glance over his shoulder. "But we aren't the only vampires in the city, right?"  
Seldes shook his head. "You wouldn't think so...but I haven't seen anyone else. Of course, that means nothing. But he said a few weeks ago. The last time we were here. So the men they found were probably our doing."  
He and Ben sat down on a low stone wall that seperated the courtyard of one boarding house from it neighbor.  
"Still, like that guy said himself, most people are going to think he's a drunk himself." Seldes commented.  
"Yeah, I would have thought he was off his head if he hadn't been saying things that were true." Ben smiled.  
"Well, anyway, I'm glad we finally got these." Seldes examined his packages of seeds. "We won't be able to plant them until spring, but at least we can start planning."  
"I can't wait!" Ben said excitedly. "It's gonna be fun to plant these and take care of them by myself; before I always had Brad and Nigel to...." suddenly, the cheery Toreador's face fell.  
"Ben?" Seldes noticed his friend's change in demeanor. "Is something wrong?"  
Ben siffled a little. "I'm sorry...." he wiped his face on his shirt sleeve instinctively. "It's just....well...remember a couple nights ago? Michaela's ghoul came all the way from Amsterdam to make sure she was alright....."  
"Yes?"  
Ben stammered for a few moments then degenerated into full out sobbing. "They didn't care! They didn't really care at all!" he cried.  
Seldes put an arm around the Toreador's shoulder. "What do you mean? Who doesn't?"  
"N-Nigel and Brad...my ghouls. I always thought they were my friends..." he choked. "But they didn't come. Didn't even send someone else to come. They probably have a new dominator now and forgot all about me. They never really cared if I was alive or dead....it only mattered as far as they were serving someone who mattered....but I don't matter anymore...so they don't CARE!" he collapsed onto Seldes' shoulder, sobbing hysterically.  
"Shh...Ben, it's okay. Just because they couldn't come doesn't mean they don't care." Seldes gently held him, speaking in soothing tones.  
"Yes it does!"  
"No it doesn't. Remember that Ana came with Michaela's sire as well. Gangrel have a much easier time traveling than Toreadors do. Maybe Brad and Nigel just weren't able to come. Or they believed the Camarilla when they released that we were all dead. You can't know how they really felt."  
Ben continued sniffling, but the sobs evaporated. "I still think they could have come if they really wanted to. I mean, they said they loved me. If I heard someone I loved was dead, I'd do anything to find them and prove they weren't...or at least find out for sure if they were."  
"Yes, but you're a Cainite. Brad and Nigel are only ghouls. They don't have the same resources, the same freedoms..."  
Ben sighed heavily. "Is this how it always happens?"  
"Is what?"  
"This. One night someone's the center of your life and the next night you forget all about them?"  
"You don't know that they forgot you."  
"But what if they did? Suddenly, I'm gone and so they just move on? It's so....terrible. Even if they cared that I was dead, they would have to get a new dominator, get new lives..." he looked up at the stars anxiously. "How can anything be really important if the next night you can just....move on? You lose something important to you and then you just learn to go without it? If you can do that....how important could the thing...or the person have been in the first place if you can do that?"  
Seldes shook his head. "Sometimes that's the way it has to be, Benny. There are so many reasons why a person would have to forget about something that meant everything to them. Look at what we're doing right now. For most of us, myself included, our clans and our haven and our people were the center of our world. Now we have to go without them. We don't like it. We still love our homes and our clans. Burt we have something important to do. We can't just shrivel up and die because something we loved is gone from us. No matter how much we want to." he lifted his gaze to the stars. "Everything that happens happens for a reason. And every person, mortal, vampire, or anything else, lives for a reason. Sometimes we don't know what that reason is, and sometimes the reason seems like it can never justify the pain we feel in this moment, but we can't let ourselves give up. We gave up our clans so we could protect them. Some night, we'll see the places, things, and people we love again."  
Ben sighed. "I just don't want them to forget me. I know that sounds selfish....I don't want them to mourn for me forever either. I want them to have good things happen to them. I just don't want to be forgotton...."  
Seldes hugged him. "They won't forget you any more than you'll forget them." he smiled, an action which was much less gruesome when he had the mask up as he did now. "Come on. We better get out of here before some crazed landlady comes after us with a frying pan."  
"Right." Ben smiled as well.  



	39. Chapter 38

  
November 22, 1800 12:13 a.m.  
basement of the house  
"There!" Amy exclaimed triumphantly. The pale blue crystal glowed slightly as the Tremere admired her handiwork. "Now...let's see if it works."  
She laid bothe her hands on the dsides of the crystal, which was situated on the top of a tall stand in the middle of her new workroom. It had been so nice when everyone moved out of the basement. How was she supposed to do any secret magical work with thirteen members of other clans were coming down here every single day? But now she could work.  
Amy closed her eyes and concentrated. In her mind's eye, she saw her inner energy condense around her chest, meld with her will from her mind, travel down her arms and infuse the crystal with energy. Then she visualized the planet depicted in the crystal sphere.  
When she opened her eyes she saw that it was so. Excellent. The spell had worked. An image of the planet was imposed along the inside surface of the crystal. It looked like one of those 'globes' which were becoming so popular with astronomers nowadays, yet far more accurate. At least it should be. The idea of the spell was to project an image of the actual earth through the channeling of personal will and the planet's own energy. And since the information on the placement of continents was taken directly from the earth mother, it was far more accurate than anything a human cartographer could devise.  
Well, now that that was done, where was that ghoul of Michaela's?  
She went upstairs into the kitchen. Ana was there, doing something with a table leg.  
"What are you doing?" Amy asked.   
"Measuring the width of this." Ana said, marking a peice of string in her hand and standing up. "The Toreador asked me to before he left last night...that and a few other things..."  
Amy shook her head. The poor girl was going to end up being a slave, what with being the only ghoul in a household of vampires used to more than three servants at any given moment. Hopefully she was up to it.  
"Well, you can do the rest of whatever it was he asked you to do later." Amy motioned for her to come. "I need to show you how to operate this device."  
Ana placed the string down on the table and followed the Tremere down to the basement.  
She gasped when she saw the glowing sphere in the center of the room. "What is that?!" the crystal seemed to be filled with liquid, and when Ana got a closer look she saw that was because the image was so detailed that it depicted the movements of the oceans.  
"That," Amy said proudly, "is how we are going to track the Society of Leopold. As soon as I charge it to do so, which will be in a moment, there will be indicators of the Society's activity at any place on that diagram."  
"But how will you know?" Ana looked up from the sphere. "How can you separate the Society's energy from all the other energies out there?"  
"Believe it or not, you can chart a person's energy by their predjudices." she bent down over the globe. "Every person has an aura, and in that aura you can find anything you ever wanted to know about the person. You see their desires, their dreams, their loves, and their hates. The spell I will cast was created by my elders to monitor those who would do us harm. It pinpoints those who have a certain componant to their aura. Specifically, a certain hatred." she stood up and began to pace around the room, imitating one of her most despised mentors. "Now, I'm not suggesting we attack every single person on the earth with a hatred of vampires. That would be ridiculous. No, our targets are the concentrated centers of a certain hatred, the bases of like-minded individuals who would like nothing better than to see our species wiped off the face of the earth."  
Ana stared for a moment. "Wow."  
Amy smiled, proud of herself. "Your task will be to locate these centers of activity and somehow get word to us...wherever we may be." she did not mention how Ana was supposed to accomplish this. No one ever did in the Chantries. You were told what to do and then left to figure out how to do it on your own.  
Ana continued to stare at the sphere. Amazing. But why didn't the Tremere activate the spell already? Did she want Ana to watch? Probably... Well, better let her show off.  
"So..." Ana began. "What do the indicators look like?"  
Amy smiled and crossed to the other side of the sphere. She placed her hands on both sides of it and began to chant under her breath something in a language Ana didn't understand.  
The ghoul shook her head a little once the Tremere closed her eyes. What a show-off. Oh well, if she could do things like that she would probably be the same way. If not worse.  
As Amy chanted, the sphere began to glow and small specks of red started to appear across the surface of the planet's projected image.  
Amy opened her eyes and took her hands away. Ana did her best to look properly awed at the Tremere's powers. It seemed she did a good job because the Tremere puffed up like a peacock. It was all Ana could do not to smile, or worse, to laugh.  
Amy pointed to a spot on the sphere. "You see these small specks?"  
"Yes."  
"Those are individual people. They may or may not be of any import. But our targets are these." she indicated a larger red spot. "These are the bases of the Society. Now, pay attention." she placed her index figer on the red spot. "To get an exact location, you must touch it like so, and then envision a larger image."  
Ana looked confused.  
"Just touch it and think at it. Think 'larger image' or anything you want. Channel your will into it. It doesn't take that much, so you should be able to manage it."  
Ana's eyebrows almost went up. Was the Tremere implying that she had a weak will? Wouldn't she just like to know....  
"Here, try it." Amy stepped back.  
Ana placed her finger where Amy's ahd been. She didn't think at it. She just willed the image to enlarge itself. Hmph. The Tremere thought that just because she was a Gangrel's ghoul she didn't know how to focus her will. Arrogant.  
The image of the entire world vsnished an in it's place there appeared an enlarged projection of southwestern Europe. The red spot was considerably larger now. Ana willed it to show the exact location. This time, the spot itself grew to encompass one 'side' of the sphere and inside it there appeared an image of a stone and wood house. The building was non-descript, possibly a boarding house; not like the churches and cathedrals the Society was reputed to frequent. Though truth be told, these nights the Society was basing its operations out of small parishes in the middle of nowhere rather than in places like the Notre Dame Cathedral.  
Amy peered over her shoulder, surprised that the ghoul had managed that so easily. Perhaps she had some magical background? But if she did, why in the world was she a Gangrel's retainer? She put that issue out of her mind for the moment and took a closer look at the building. It somehow seemed familiar....  
"Back it up. Show the city its in."  
Ana took the image to the necessary area.  
Amy examined the image...houses...inns and bars... and on the horizon, the tall smokestackes of a closed down factory....  
"Oh, great Triads...." Amy gasped. "They're in Geneva!"  



	40. Chapter 39

  
November 21, 3:25 a.m.  
Dead Horse Inn  
Michaela grabbed another rat. Such wonderful creatures they were...red eyes, wiry fur, violent nature. Scrounging through garbage to get their food, tormented by every human they came into contat with, chased out of homes, threatened with traps and poison, yet few humans could boast that they had ever killed a rat. True survivors, these were. Rats would make good Gangrel. Too bad the Tzimisce already stole the concept of the Ghoul Rat.  
She let the rodent go and scamper off under the nearest pile of garbage. She didn't catch them in order to do anyhting to them. She just wanted to play. And there was certainly nothing else to do with Sugar inside spending some quality time with the bar. Mika had never liked alchohal much....especially not the kind that would probably be sold at a place called 'Dead Horse'.  
She spent a few more minutes playing with the rats, but then she just got tired of waiting. She circled to the side of the building and entered through an open window. A few of the drunks stared at her for a moment, then called for more whiskey.  
Sugar shook her head as the gangrel walked up to her. "What was wrong with the door?"  
"What was wrong with the window?"  
The Ravnos shook her head. "So, what's going on?"  
"Nothing. That's the problem. Are you going to be in here all night?"  
"Um...maybe."  
"Then I'm leaving. You said you were only getting one drink."  
"Oh, alright, alright!" Sugar downed the remainder of her whiskey and slammed the glass down on the bar with a satisfying thud. "Damn this stay with a partner stuff."  
"You didn't have to come with me." Michaela reminded her as they left the bar before the barkeep realized that Sugar had failed to pay her rather large tab. "You could have gone with one of the others. Courtney was going to a bar, I think."  
"Oh sure. I'm going to go get a drink with her. Really." Sugar rolled her eyes.  
"I thought you two were getting along better now....."  
"She's hellspawn. The devil's bride incarnate. And from what I saw of her the last time we were here, a succubus as well." Sugar shrugged. "But she's not bad to talk to on the rare occasions when she's not being a total demoness."  
Michaela stared. "Well...then....alright, whatever you say."  
The two of them cut through an alleyway. "We should get out of here." Sugar remarked. "Bad things always happen in alleys."  
They stepped out onto the somewhat broader street a moment later. "I would think bad things could happen anywhere." Michaela commented. That was when the beam fell.  
"Watch it!" Mika yelled, shoving Sugar out of the way and jumping off in the other direction herself. The Ravnos caught her foot on a cobble stone and went sprawling three feet to the left. And that was probably a good thing, since the flaming beam of wood fell right where she might have landed when Mika pushed her had she not tripped.  
"Hellspawn!" a voice screamed from above them. "You will be destroyed in the name of God!"  
"What the HELL?!" Sugar jumped up.  
The man on the rooftop above them-assumambly the one responsible for the beam- took off down the street, jumping from roof to roof. That didn't indicate that he wasn't human or anything; not when buildings were this close together. No, he was human enough.  
"Come on!" Sugar took off after him, leaping to the top of the building in a single jump.  
"No, wait!" Mika shouted. But it was too late. The Gangrel shook her head in exasperation before following the Ravnos to the top of the buildings.  
"Sugar!" she yelled, running and jumping as fast as she could. "Come back here!"  
But her partner had gotton a head start and was already three rooftops ahead.  
"Hurry up!" the Ravnos yelled over her shoulder. "what the hell are you yelling at me for?! Human on his own, easy pickings!"  
"You moron!" Mika screamed. "You're heading right into a trap!"  
"Yeah, right!" Sugar picked up speed, bounding across the roofs and finally jumping down after the man and chasing him into the street.  
"Why won't you listen to me?!" Mika growled under her breath as she chased her partner down the road.  
Sugar raced after the man. He had jumped off the roof onto a horse, and now he had added speed along with the head start that Sugar had almost closed. Oh well. That just meant it would be a little longer until his death. This was such fun. Chasing humans down and gutting them like fish. She had thought the Gangrel would understand.  
The man made it as far as a small inn (not the Dead Horse) when Sugar grabbed his animal's tail. The horse panicked and threw the rider back. Suagr ducked to avoid being hit by the man. She let the horse go. No need to punish the poor beast for its rider's crimes.  
Behind her, the man gathered his wits and tried to run. Too late. Sugar grabbed him by the throat and lifted him a few feet off the ground. "Throw flaming logs at me, will ya?" she began to slowly crush the man's windpipe. "So, did you think you were gonna be some sort of vampire slayer? You're awfuly sloppy."  
"Y-you think--you--you've won!" the man gasped out.  
Sugar considered for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."  
The man managed a sneer as his face began to turn purple. "You--will--a--all--be destroyed--God and his followers--we wi--will--wipe you ou--"  
His esophagus made a crunching sound not unlike the one Sugar's boots made in the rocky dirt. The Ravnos smirked and drew his corpse close. She was still sucking the body dry, right there in the middle of the street, when Michaela came running up.  
"Want some?" Sugar extended the carcus, still holding it by the neck. "There should be some left; I'm done--" she cut off abruptly as Michaela let out and angry snarl and sent the corpse flying into the road with a sweep of her hand.  
"Don't EVER do that again!" she yelled.  
"Do what?!" Sugar yelled back. "Chase down some renegade kine with a hero complex?! What, you thought he was gonna kill me? Or is this about the damnable Masquerade?!"  
"It's not about the Masquerade!" Michaela groaned. "It's about the Society!"  
"Oh sure, this guy was from the Society." Sugar rolled her eyes. "Such a sloopy method..."  
"He wasn't meant to kill us! He was meant to do exactly what he did. Get your attention and get you to chase him. He was leading you, Sugar! That's one of their favorite tricks. Send one renegade to make a sloppy attempt and then get the target to chase the renegade in the hopes of having a little fun and a bite to eat, and then the renegade leads the target right into a Society stronghold!" she threw her arms up in furstration. "They use our arrogance against us. You never expected any real threat from one lone assasin, did you?"  
"Arrogance?!" Sugar spat. "There was no threat, Greywauld! I caught him, didn't I? How could that measly nag have outrun me?!"  
Michaela grabbed her arm. "Let's get out of here. He obviously wasn't trying to lead us far."  
Sugar groaned but allowed herself to be dragged. "Why? You think they're gonna ambush us? Bring it on! I'm sick of just sitting around! I want to fight! A real fight, I mean, not just strangling some kine in the street. How can you, of all people, tell me not to?!"  
They stopped outside the Dead Horse. "I want to fight too, Sugar." Michaela told her. "But on my own terms. It's better to know what's waiting for you. Especially when you're dealing with the Society of Leopold." she turned and continued walking down the cobblestone street.  
Sugar hurried after her. "How come you know so much about these guys?! I mean, I can see that you hate 'em, but did you fight 'em before or anything like that? And why the hell are you acting like you're scared of them?!"  
Michaela stopped in her tracks and spun to face the Ravnos. "Scared of them, am I?" she stared long and hard at her companion. "Very good. I am scared of them. I'm not too proud to admit it."  
Sugar stood there, stunned. "But...WHY?! They're just humans!"  
Michaela let out a harsh, humorless laugh. "Just humans. Yeah. That's what I used to think." she glared at Sugar. "But I know way too well what humans are capable of. Especially these humans."  
"Whoa....what the hell happened to you?"  
Michaela turned and began to walk again. "Suffice to say I know firsthand what they're capable of once they trap you in their strongholds. Don't fall for their traps, Sugar."  
Sugar stood there in the street as the Gangrel vanished. That certainly explained everything. Michaela had been captured by the Society. Well, now Sugar knew why the girl was so paranoid. She probably would be too.   
Sugar began to walk back to the Dead Horse. She still couldn't believe Michaela had actually admitted to being afraid of them, though. Why would she reveal something like that; and sound as if Sugar was insane for not being afraid of them in the process? Well, no matter what the Gangrel thought or what she was afraid of, Sugar knew she could take on ten humans, even ones from the Society of Leopold. She understood why Michaela acted the way she did, but that didn't mean Sugar was going to imitate the behavior. She had a nasty habit of never believing anything unless she saw it for herself. That tended to get her into trouble sometimes. There was always a little voice in the back of her head telling her to heed other's warnings, but she never really listened to it. Besdies, personal experience was worth all the advice in the world.  
She stopped outside the bar. She probably shouldn't go in, the barkeep might remember her. Instead, she jogged down to the inn she had left the corpse by a little while ago. The bar was still open there. Had to love these all night bars in big cities. She went in to try to drown that little voice in her head and build up another astronomical tab to skip out on before morning.  



	41. Chapter 40

  
November 22, 1800. 4:52 a.m.  
basement of the closed factory  
"She's evil, I tell you! Evil! You haven't seem her dark side!!" Alectz ranted at Carleigh.  
Carleigh arched an eyebrow at the object of Alectz's terror. Mei sat cross-legged on the floor, rocking from her right to left, her pigtails sweeping back and forth across her face, and giggling as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world  
"Right, Alectz. Of course." Carleigh patted the Malkavian's hand.  
Alectz jerked away. "You don't believe me!" she accused. "You've allowed yourself to be fooled by that cute exterior! Well I won't be taken in!" she pointed angrily at Mei. "I'm on to you, demon child!" she cried, then turned and ran out of the basement, shoving Michaela Greywauld into the doorpost as the Gangrel entered, on her way out.  
Carleigh shook her head. Alectz would have too come back soon. It would be daybreak in a little over an hour. But at least that meant everyone else was back. Seldes and Ben were talking about types of gardens off to one side. Carid was in a corner of the basement, reading some book she had picked up in town. In the other corner, Sharma was cleaning her sword, why Carleigh didn't know. Maria was watching Mei, who was still playing around on the floor, Sobek was watching Ben and Seldes for some reason, probably because they were making the most noise, and Cathy was sitting on a crate looking tired and bored. And Michaela was just coming down the stairs now. Well, that was everybody accounted for except Sugar and Courtney.  
"Where's Sugar?" Carleigh asked as the Gangrel came within earshot.  
"Dead Horse. We have to leave the city tomorrow night."  
Carleigh blinked, not really follwing that statement.  
"What do you mean we have to leave?" Maria piped up.  
"And whose horse is dead?!" Carid demanded.  
"No, no, Dead Horse is a bar. That's where I left Sugar." Michaela clarifyed. "And we have to leave because the Society is here. They attacked Sugar and me and tried to lead us back to their base."  
"What?!"  
"Sugar fell headfirst into one of their traps." the Gangrel shook her head. "But she managed to catch the bait before we ended up waltzing straight into an army of Knights of Saint John."   
"What in the universe are you talking about?"  
After Michaela had related the full story of what had happened in the street, Carleigh stood up.  
"She's right. We have to get out of here." she shook her head. "We'll go back home and figure out a way to deal with this situation."  
That statement met with a barrage of protests.  
"We're just going to RUN from them?!"  
"Maybe that's what the Camarilla does in an emergency..."   
"Hey, shut up!" Cathy snapped at Carid.  
"Look, you people can argue all you want about this, I'm going to go get Sugar." Michaela headed out again. "She probably got herself properly drunk this time."  
"As long as you're going, find Alectz and Courtney, will you?" Carleigh called over her shoulder before returning to the argument.  
Mika hurried out of the basement and shut the door to the street behind her, glad to be rid of the noisy room. She was actually quite sure that Sugar could make it back just fine on her own, but if there was going to be a basement full of people arguing and yelling at each other, Mika was going to be as far away from it as possible.  
She jogged down the street in the direction of the Dead Horse.  



	42. Chapter 41

November 22, 1800. 5:00 a.m.  
Horned Viper Inn  
Sugar lifted the purse of the man passed out next to her before belting her last drink and heading out. She would have taken a few more moneybags on her way out, seeing as how every other person in the bar--including the barkeep--was unconcious. But she had already taken their things earlier in the evening...even though, now that she thought about it, she really hadn't been here that long.  
She strolled out of the bar, a little unsteady but still able too see straight. The sun would be coming up soon. She should get back.   
She had walked about three steps when she realized she hadn't fed. Drunk men were never good to feed on. Too much liquor in the blood for a vampire to get much good out of it. Great, so now she had to find someone to feed on and get back before daybreak.  
She looked around and caught sight of some human figures silhouetted against the thin drapes of a boarding house a little way down the street. Well, she wasn't normally one for home invasion, but they were on the first floor and the house was close. She hurried down the street, hurrying to get the job done before daybreak.  



	43. Chapter 42

  
  
November 22, 1800. 5:09 a.m.  
Dead Horse  
Mika gazed around the barrom once more with ever growing agitation. The only people here were two unconcious drunks prostrate on the floor. No Ravnos.  
She kicked the door of the establishment off it's hinge in frustration and stormed out into the street. Where was she?! Of course, there was always the possibility that the Ravnos had just started back before Mika had got there. But that was unlikely. As winding and confusing as these streets were, the most logical way back to the factory was the way Mika had come. She would have met Sugar on her way.  
"Hey, Gangrel!" Mika jumped at the shout.  
She turned to see Courtney hurrying across the street towards her. "Do you know where we are?!" she demanded.  
"Yes...."  
"And you know how to get back to the factory?"  
"Yes...."  
"Good. Take me there." she commanded. "A person could be lost forever in this city! Do they not understand the concept of the straight road?!"  
"I guess not..." Mika shrugged. So the streets were more confusing than she'd thought. "Well, I'll take you back, but I have to find Sugar first."  
Courtney rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Fine! Then just tell me how to get back."  
Mika glanced over her shoulder the way she had come. "Um... well, just go straight and it's mostly a big road...but you have to turn...um...left when you see a horse tied to a post and well...." she gave up. She wasn't used to giving directions. "Look, I can show you better than I can tell you. But I need to find Sugar."  
Courtney looked like she was about to blow a vein. "You have to take me back first!" she practically screamed.  
Michaela stared. She did, did she? "I have to find Sugar, Lasombra." She repeated, narrowing her eyes. "Now you can go down that road," she pointed, "and try to find your way back to the factory on your own, or you can come with me and I'll take you back once we locate Sugar. It's up to you."  
It was Courtney's turn to stare. She had never been spoken to like that in her life OR unlife! "You'll never get to her by morning, you imbecile!" she finally spat out. "I saw her in some bar on the other end of town an hour ago! Looked too drunk to move! Now if you want to die for her, that's just fine with me, but--"  
"Where did you say?!" Michaela cut her off.  
"That way!" Courtney waved her hand to the north. "But like I said, it's too far and--"  
"Dammit!" Mika turned and sprinted off in the direction Courtney had pointed. She couldn't have! The Ravnos couldn't have been so thick as to go back to the bar wher she had caught the Society renegade! But that was the direction Courtney had pointed. She ran faster, knowing full well that the brash gypsy might have already done something stupid.  
"Hey!" Courtney shouted as the Gangrel took off. "Where do you think you're going?! You have to take me back!" she glanced around desperately. If she tried to go back on her own, she'd get lost and get herself fried in no time! Oh, damn the wolf girl! She had no choice.  
"Wait for me!" she shouted, chasing the Gangrel down the street under a quickly paling sky.  



	44. Chapter 43

  
  
November 22, 1800. 5:16 a.m.  
Geneva by almost morning  
Sugar remained crouched under the window, listening to the sounds of the people moving within. She didn't have much time. There seemed to be no choice at this point but that of a dramatic entrance. The room was filled; there was no way she could sneak around the back and be able to find this same room in time. And since she had already decided to prey on the people in this room, no other would do.  
She leaned back and surveyed the prospect. If she jumped straight through the window, she could grab someone, or maybe even two someones qucikly, jump back out, run down the block, feed, and be back to the factory by daybreak. Yes, that was what she would do. No problem whatsoever.  
Inside, a small group of youngish men were drinking morning tea. They all looked tired, reluctant to be up so early. Two of the men sitting by the window suddenly jumped to their feet. A split second later, the glass exploded inwards, showering the room and its occupants.  
Sugar landed gracefully on the mess of broken glass, fangs bared and eyes flashing. She glanced around quickly, grabbed the nearest man, and spun around.  
And into a torch.  
She jumped back, hissing like a Bram Stoker creation. She dropped the man in shock and he scrambled away. It was then that Sugar saw the lit fireplace. And the torches beside it. And the stakes in the hands of some of the men. She tensed up immediately. What the hell was this?!  
The man holding the torch in her face advanced a step, chuckling. "What's wrong, demoness?" he sneered. "Thinking you should have listened to your companion?"  
Sugar felt sick to her stomach.  
"We saw what you did to Thomas." One of the men with stakes spoke up. You would have paid dearly for his life either way, but it was so kind of you to come to us."  
Society! the word cut through Sugar's head like a broadsword. Michaela had been right. Well, she'd apologize to the Gangrel later, right now she needed to get out of here!  
She faked to the left, causing the man with the torch in front of her to jump. She ducked as he swung the torch at her head and spun to her right, kicking the man's legs out form under him as she did so. The torch flew out of his hand and set the glass covered rug on fire. That wasn't the way it was supposed to work! Sugar swore mentally as a wall of flame cut off her planned escape route.  
With loud shouts, the rest of the group rushed forward. Torches and stakes all over. Sugar grabbed the edge of the flaming rug and hurled it at them. It stopped a few, but most avoided it and came at her.  
She barely grabbed the arm which was swinging a stake at her chest in time to snap the bone. She swung around, grabbing the man who's arm she had just broken and hurling him into another fire attacker, sending both of them into the spreading flames.  
Sugar dodged another stake aimed at her heart only to take it in the arm instead. She screamed in pain and lashed out at the attacker, her one good fist smashing the man's skull with a single blow. She pulled the stake out of her arm and jabbed it through the stomach of the next guy who lunged at her. See how he liked it. Her victim toppled backwards and into another of his companions. Sugar's spirit rose. There were only a couple left. Fools, to think that any number of humans could defeat a Cainite!  
Suddenly, her surroundings burst into flames. The two remaining men had thrown their torches at Sugar's feet. She spun to try for an escape, then a sharp pain ripped through her. Literally.  
Sugar toppled forward, the stake in her back paralyzing her. Lying amid the flames, she saw out of the corner of her eye the room fill with more humans. They were all laughing, congratulating themselves. And she saw the person who had put the stake through her back. A woman. No, not even that. A young girl. She was laughing too. Dammit! The litte bitch must have been hding here the whole time! With Sugar attention distracted to the obvious threat of the grown men, she hadn't even noticed the girlchild. Blast it!  
Michaela had been right. These people knew what they were doing.... They had spied on them, planned this the whole time...  
"Well done, Helena." one of the male voices laughed.  
"Thank you, Papa!" the girl chirped.  
Papa?! They brought their children into this? Well, of course they did. How else would the traditions of the maniacs be guarded so faithfully? Helena...that was the brat's name....  
The man Helena had called 'Papa' advanced with a butcher's cleaver in his hand. He stood over Sugar's head, obviously gloating.  
"Now, hellspawn...shall I kill you now or let the blessed sun do it's work?" he sneered. "So confidant all of you. You think that just because we are human that we do not know how to destroy your accursed kind. But good will always tri--"  
His tirade was cut off by the roar of a wild animal. Mika crashed through the broken window, clear over the flames. She landed on all fours, eyes red, fangs out, fur standing on end. The men were startled for a moment. Mika took that moment.  
She charged forward, right into the crowd of men, growing two inch long claws on each finger as she did so. The men barely had tome to grab their stakes and torches before those claws went through their spines.  
Sugar couldn't see anything at this point, but she heard the screams of Michaela's victims, not to mention the screams of Helena and the shouts of her father.  
The man ran at the Gangrel, torch blazing. He thought he had her, but she spun around at the last second and a sweep of her claws sent the torch and several of his fingers flying.  
Sugar suddenly felt the stake yanked out of her. She summoned enough strength to look up. Courtney stood over her, looking extremely displeased at the blood that was now dirtying her hands.  
"Come on, get up!" the Lasombra yelled. "The sun's rising! Michaela!"  
The Gangrel threw the man she was maiming across the room and darted away. "Hurry!" she yelled, grabbing Sugar and lifting her by the arm.  
Courtney was out the window in a flash, Michaela and Sugar right behind her.   
The Gangrel and Lasombra raced down the street as the sky began to turn a shade of light blue.  
"This brings back some really bad memories!" Michaela growled, still practically carrying Sugar. "This way!" she guided Courtney down the cobblestone street as quickly as she could. The Gangrel had to fight from screaming out loud. The sun almost at her back, sprinting through the streets, carrying a near helpless person over her shoulder....oh yeah, this brought back something. Now she knew what her sire had felt like that morning in Edinhoven....  
They reached the cellar door and dove inside just as the sun rose over the Alps.  
  



	45. Chapter 44

  
November 22, 1800. 4:25 p.m.  
factory basement  
Fire. Fire blazes around her. No windows, no doors. The walls are fire. The ceiling above her is fire. And the whip that strikes her is fire as well. She no longer has the strength to cry out in pain as the welt upon welt forms across her back.  
Ice. Closing in, suffocating. She collapses, tired and starved. The ice walls surge up around her. So cold, so cold it burns. She struggls to stand, but her legs are trapped. Ice and snow, covering her. Her fate seems naught but a white burial cloth.  
Fire burns still, though she has ceased to notice it. They grab her arms, drag her through the flames. Her clothes are ashes, her hair cinders. Gaping holes have been burned through her bare fleash. Funny how if it hurt enough, a body stopped caring. Her mind screams at her to live, to survive. But her body can no longer bring itself to fight. Perhaps it is better....  
Somehow she stands. She fights her way forward, but her body craves blood. She can bear no longer. She collapses into the ice again, this time for good. She cannot drag herself up again. To end like this...but better in the arms of the ice than at the hand of that monster who had...changed her. What he would do would be worse than death. Better to die...to surrender...  
She is thrown forward. The cool of the stone is a comfort to her schorched body, but it is relief short lived. A new fire takes the place of the kind her torturers posess. She raises her eyes to witness a sight she had thought she would never see again...the rising of the sun. Smoke begins to rise off her charred flesh.  
The wind is a siren, calling creatures to their deaths. She needs not fear the fire of the sun now; the snow has blocked out the sky. She lies facedown in the ice. Her body breaks under the weight of the drifts. Nothing left now. The wind howls on. Now she does not pray for escape or rescue. Only silence.  
The sun is above the mountaintops...it is all over now. Suddenly, screams of her captors break the solemnity. She cannot see, only hear their shouts, hear them scatter. Her eyes are half-burned away. She sees nothing. But she feels her body raised off the platform by a pair of arms too strong to be those of a human. She feels those arms hold her close, carrying her away from the sun, from the fire. Feels the torture of flames finally cease as the darkness of an underground cellar shields them both.  
The snow and ice cover her. She has no strength left to fight it. Even her spirit has laid down to die. But there...she hears something out of place. Crunching...soon nearly loud enough to drown out the wind in her ears. But before she realizes, the wind is not only in her ears, but against her face. A large hand grabs her stiffened arm and drags her up into the gale force. She feels herself gathered into powerful arms and puleed out of the snow drifts. She feels conciousness slipping from her still, but she forces her frost covered eyes open. The last she sees before she enters torpor are the eyes her savior gazing down at her...with eyes as blue as the ice itself...  
She drinks hungrily of her sire's blood, feeling the vitae heal her wounds and restore her sight. The influx of his blood is the only thing that keeps her from torpor. She collapses into a deep sleep, though she knows nightmares will come.   
She wakes in the coach. He stands over her; the man who changed her. He is shouting, berating her for running. But she does not hear. Where is the other? The one who lifted her from the snow? Gone...  
Selendrile, her sire, her savior. He had saved her from death by the sun. Protected her from the flames. But the fire remained. It always would. Until the night of her Final Death, this morning would be with her. The flames had burned themselves a place in her soul. Fire would burn in her forever.  
She sleeps now, a bag of earth clutched close to her. This was the talisman that would keep the cold at bay. She is certain that she will forget this night. Forget the snow, the ice...and the eyes above her. But until then, the memory persisted. Those eyes were watching her. But she would forget...  
The fire remained forever...  
She would forget the ice and those eyes of ice...  
Fire  
Ice  
Fire  
Ice  
Fire  
Ice  
Fire  
Ice  
Fire  
Michaela awoke abruptly, letting out a small yelp. The foot that had kicked her in the head quickly retracted itself.  
"Sorry." the Tzimisce's voice hissed.  
Mika growled unhappily, rubbing her head. She didn't remember going to sleep so close to anyone...   
Carid glanced around and found herself a good ten yards from where she had originally lay down to rest. "Wow." she said in a low whisper. "How did I get over here?"  
"Don't look at me." Michaela grumbled.  
Carid didn't even notice the death glare the Gangrel was sending at her. She got up off the floor, sat down on a nearby crate, and began to rub her eyes with both hands. The dreams had come again. Why? She had her dirt. It was firmly attached to her belt right now. So why was she having a no-dirt dream when she had her dirt? Unbelievable. She sighed heavily. She had been so sure she would forget all about it...all about that night in the snow. Why did it keep coming back to her? Why?!  
"Something wrong?"  
The Tzimisce looked down at the Gangrel sitting cross legged on the floor beside the crate.  
"What do you care?" she grunted.  
Michaela narrowed her eyes. "I care because I can't get back to sleep with all the agitated energy you've got pouring out into the room. My kind is very sensitive to those things, you know." she failed to mention that she herself was still reeling from the disturbing dream/ memory of the Edinhoven morning. But there was no reason Carid had to know about that.  
"So sorry..." Carid groaned.  
"So since I'm obviously not going to get anymore rest today, you might as well tell me why you kicked me in your sleep." And give me something to think about besides that day, she mentally added.  
Carid looked away. What business was it of hers?! She wasn't about to let some Gangrel she barely knew in on a deep personal secret that could easily be used against her if it fell into the wrong hands. Yet that annoying little voice in the back of her head kept nagging her. What if surpressing her memories of the event was what was making it come back? Perhaps letting the secret out would be the fastest way to make the memory pass from her...  
"Just a bad dream..." she said cautiously. "More of a memory, really...."  
To her surprise, the Gangrel snorted in amusement. "It must be contagious." Michaela chuckled, quietly so as not to wake everyone else.  
"What are you talking about?"  
Michaela shook her head. "Nothing. I was having one of those myself, that's all. Funny, isn't it?"  
"That we both had nightmares?"  
"Well, yes, but that's not what I meant. The Tremere say that the mind will block out and voluntarily forget the worst, most traumatic events of one's life. And yet they always seem to come back, don't they?"  
"The warlocks never did know their arses from their elbows..." Carid smirked. "So what happened to you? Let me guess, it has something to do with the Society of Leopold."  
"I asked you first....but it seems I'm going first anyway..." Michaela sighed. "And you're right. It has everything to do with the Society." she paused, staring off into space, remembering. "When I was a childe...about ten years dead...the Inquistition came to the Low Countries." she shook her head. "My sire and I were living in the forest outside of a small city called Edinhoven. We never gave the Spanish a thought. Didn't care, didn't worry...didn't take any caution. Especially me. I was...cocky. You know how it feels when you're finally starting to get a handle on your abilities, you're almost ready to be presented as a neonate...you're just full of yourself. You feel invincible."  
Carid nodded in agreement. Every young Cainite knew the feeling Michaela described.   
"They built one of their....execution pyres in my hunting ground." the Gangrel continued. "I thought it was a thrill. I spied on them, watched the executions...I was always planning on destroying it at some point, but there always seemed to be people there during the night, and my sire had ordered me not to be seen. So I just watched." she paused again. "Then one night...one night, I knew two of the 'heretics' being executed. My mother and sister..."  
"And you tried to save them?" Carid interrupted.  
"No." Michaela said simply. "I never had much love for either of them. I never missed them or anything. But...the fact that they were there fascinated me. I had thought them too weak to rebel against Regent Margaret. So I went in for a closer look. I don't remember why, exactly. To make sure it was them, to get a better veiw of their deaths... I don't know. But I was hypnotized by the sight of them burning. So hypnotized I never saw them coming."  
"The Society?"  
Michaela nodded. "They were the ones behind the whole Inquisition. They usually were, in those days. But I didn't know that at the time, ignorant fledgling that I was. They surrounded me with torches; to this night I'm not sure how they managed to get behind me. But get behind me they did...." her voice trailed off. After a moment, she regained it and finished her story. "They knocked me out and took me back to their base. I was tortured for the rest of the night, and almost put to death by sunlight. But at the last moment, at least that's what it seemed like, my sire found me and rescued me. We escaped and hid in some wine cellar...and fled to Amsterdam the next night." she sighed heavily. "That was the last time I ever underestimated the Society...and the last time I ever saw humans as harmless cattle. I'm not ashamed of what happened to me back there. I used to be; I thought it proved that I wasn't able to take care of myself as I should. But since then I've realized that there's really no shame in being weak and ignorant when you're a fledgling. So long as you learn from it."  
"Which you did, from the sound of this." Carid commented. After a moment, she asked, "Is that why you enforce the Masquerade, then? Because you're afraid of humans? ARE you afraid of humans?"  
"Damn right I'm afraid of humans. You would be too if you'd seen what I've seen." she saw the look of surprise on Carid's face. "You think I'm mad for telling you? You think I've revealed a weakness?" her tone and expression told Carid that the Gangrel had done no such thing.  
"Apparantly not..." the Tzimisce murmured. What an enigma. But the story certainly explained what was driving Michaela.  
"Now it's your turn." Michaela looked up at her. "What was so awful that you managed to move yourself halfway across the room and subsequently kick me in the head?"  
Carid sighed apprehensively. She felt she should listen to the annoying voices and just get tis off her chest, but she preferred to try a less direct approach than the too straightforward Gangrel had used.  
"How long does it take to forget theings?" she asked. "How many centuries does one have to live before one forgets about things in the past?"  
"Depends on what the things are." Michaela shrugged.  
Carid sighed. This was so against her principles it wasn't even funny. But at this point, she was willing to do anything to make the dreams stop.  
"The night I was embraced..." she began slowly. "Well, it wasn't voluntary. I was traveling and this man who was supposed to be escorting me to Moscow decided I would make a good Tzimisce. Without telling me about it." she shrugged. "So yeah. I woke up a vampire and I panicked. I jumped out of the coach and just started running. I know, I know. Stupid. But like I said, I frenzied. I'm not sure how far I ran, but when I came out of it I was in the middle of nowhere with a snowstorm brewing. I ended up getting caught in the storm. Managed to wander around for a while before the snow got too thick for me to move anymore. I was starving, lost...half frozen..." she was uncomfortable with this, but now that she had started, she had to continue. "I finally collapsed. Thought I was gonna die. I almost went into torpor as it was."  
"Almost?"  
"Well, I did. But later. Not in the snow." she paused. "This is the strange part, though....someone found me. Pullled me out from under the mountain of snow and took me back to Dvoraky. My sire, I mean. I can't believe anyone else would have been crazy enough to be out there in that. Or that even if they were, they would know where to take me to." she shook her head. "Anyway, he -or she, I don't actually know- saved me, took me back to the coach, and disappeared into thin air. Dvoraky said he didn't know who it was either. And he told me that a few decades later, when we were getting along better. So I believed him." she sighed. "So that's my story. I keep having nightmares about being in that storm again. It's not like I have any difficulty with snow when I'm awake...just when I'm asleep."  
Michaela nodded. "So why did you kick me?"  
"I dunno....."  
The Gangrel shrugged. "Okay then..." she circled around behind the crate Carid was sitting on. "You seem to be feeling better, so I'm going to try to get some sleep. It's still day out." she curled up against the wall.  
Carid nodded, she actually did feel somewhat better. Maybe the annoying voices had been right after all...  
She braced her foot against the edge of the crate, intending to jump off. But the minute she put pressure on the wood, a sickening crack assailed her ears.  
"Uh-oh." was all Mika heard before one Tzimisce and several pounds of rice landed in her lap.  
"That was a very poorly made storage structure." Carid grunted. "And why do they have rice here anyway?! I thought this was a textiles factory!"  
"I think they use the grain for something....." Mika said, still slightly shaken. "either that or its just for feeding the workers."  
"Yeah, well....can't they get their own food?!" Carid looked up at Mika. The Gangrel looked back down at her. What an odd position. Carid shifted a little, attempting to get up. As she did, she saw Michaela's eyes flash like a wolf's.  
Carid froze. She would think there had to be light...but that didn't matter. The wolf girl's eyes...they had always been blue, but now....  
Ice.  
They shone like blue ice. Looking up into those eyes... something Carid now knew she could never forget.  
It was her!  
Impossible! Carid's mind screamed.  
"Would you mind moving?" Michaela asked, attempting to dust some of the rice off herself.  
Carid snapped out of her thoughts. She quickly scrambled away from the Gangrel, trying to hide her embarassment.  
Michaela stood and combed rice grains out of her fur. "I think i'll sleep in the other corner..." she muttered. "Good day, Dvorak." she called absently as she wandered off.  
Carid said nothing. She remained sitting in the pile of rice, unable to even think straight.  
It was her.  
How could this be happening?! Things like this just didn't HAPPEN in real life! Or unlife, for that matter. She used to have odd little fantasies about meeting her 'prince' again, but that stopped centuries ago!  
It was impossible, but it was true. Those eyes....Carid would never forget these eyes. It was her.  
She stole a glance at the Gangrel. Michaela had already curled up against another large box and appeared to have fallen asleep. She didn't remember. That much was clear. Maybe it was someone else then...most people's memories would have been jogged by the story Carid had told.  
But what had Michaela said? Depends on what the thing is whther or not you remember it for centuries. The incident in the snowstorm had been crucial in Carid's life, but probably just another night for Michaela. The Gangrel had forgotton.  
Well, Carid cetainly wasn't going to remind her! No point, anyway. What was she thinking? It wasn't like the knowing would change anything between them. So there was no point.  
Carid pulled her legs up to her chest and laid her head on her knees. Best get to sleep. There was no point thinking about it. So the Gangrel had pulled her out of a snowbank three centuries ago. So what? It made no difference now.  
She forced herself back to sleep, not even realizing that she was still lying in a pile of rice.  



	46. Chapter 45

  
  
November 22, 1800. 7:03 p.m.  
factory basement  
"And we have enough blood for the next few nights?" Carleigh asked. "Because we can't come back here."  
"I was collecting it all last night." Sharma answered. "There should be enough for a week, maybe two. And that's if everyone takes only what they absolutely need. We won't have enough to last us much longer..."  
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...." Carleigh sighed, crossing the final item off her list and putting her notebook away.  
"That's a very foolish strategy..."  
"Do YOU have any better ideas?  
Sharma was saved from answering by a large chair flying down the steps of the basement. The two Cainites occupying the area, both safely out of the chair's path of flight, watched it smash into ten or twelve peices upon hitting the stone floor.  
"Sugar, that's not going to solve anything." a voice from above said calmly.  
Upstairs, a very angry Sugar Kelly faced Maria, Mika, and Seldes with pure fury in her eyes.  
"I will NOT leave! You just want to run away?! Forget it! I have a score to settle with those bastards! I'm going back TONIGHT! Dammit, I almost had them! If it hadn't been for that girl, I would've--"  
"Sugar!" Mika interrupted. "The men you fought were only the tip of the iceberg! Can't you see the Society of Leopold has taken this entire city?! There is no prince. No archbishop, either. No other vampires AT ALL, Sugar! They were waiting for us. They knew we came here. Unless we get a plan going..."  
"They eat the likes of you for breakfast, Kelly." Courtney piped up from the other side of the room. The Lasombra sat perched on some table that had probably been used for tailoring.  
"What did you just say?!" Sugar spun to face the girl.  
"You heard me." Courtney sneered. "These guys drove elders out of this city, Ravnos. You think you can just walk in there and take them on? You would have been dead last night if it hadn't been for me and the Gangrel. A little girl staked you in the back. I've never witnessed such tactical incompetance in my unlife."  
With a cry of absolute hatred, Sugar lunged forward. Mika barely caught her in time to save Courtney's throat from beong torn out.  
"Sugar, calm down!" Maria yelled at her to no avail.  
"See?" Courtney taunted. "I suppose you go into battle like that too. No plan, no strategy. Just anger and brute force. No wonder the little girl staked you." she hopped off the table and sauntered out of the room.  
"I'll KILL you!!!!" Sugar screamed at the top of her lungs.  
"Sugar, stop." Seldes placed a hand on her arm. "We have the Society of Leopold around the corner, not a night's ride from our haven. The last thing we need right now is internal feuding."  
"Tell that to HER!" Sugar raged.  
"I know, I know." Seldes said soothingly. "But she has a point. You need to have a plan when you go into battle, not just anger and force. Because I'm sure the vampires who fought for this city originally had plenty of that."  
"I can't believe you're taking her side..." the Ravnos grumbled.  
"I'm not. I'm saying we need a plan before we try to defeat a Society stronghold. The only reason it has anything at all to do with Courtney is because she mentioned it."  
"So we're just going to run? Retreat back to our haven? Give them exactly what they want?!"  
"Sometimes that's the best strategy." Maria pointed out. "If they think they've scared us away, they're more likely to let their guard down."  
"Yeah, sure." Mika snorted. "I'm sure the former prince of this city thought the same thing. The Society knows our tricks. They don't assume anything until they see the dust pile."  
"So what do you suggest we do then?" Maria demanded with no small degree of annoyance. "Go and try to fight them tonight?"  
"Of course not. We go back for now. We have to. But don't think for a minute they'll let their guard down. They won't be taking any chances knowing vampires are anywhere near here. So we can't afford to take any either."  
"Absolutely right." Carleigh said as she came up from the basement. "Which is why I don't think we should all leave together. Perhaps we could trickle out, leave by different ends of the city..."  
"And leave them some more time to come find us?" Mika asked incredulously. "Courtney and I weren't sure if we were being followed or not. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."  
Sharma pushed past Carleigh and headed outside.  
"Hey, tell the others to get their horses saddled, will you, Sharma?" Maria asked as the Assamite walked by her.  
Sharma nodded stiffly and disappered out the back door.  
"The others already have their things together." the Giovanni continued. "We're ready to go as soon as the horses are."  
Carleigh sighed. All that planning gone to waste.... She shrugged and followed Maria and Mika outside.  
"Sugar?" Seldes glanced at the Ravnos, who was now sulking in a corner. "We're leaving."  
Sugar said nothing.  
"We'll be back. We have to know what we're doing before we do it. You understand that, don't you?"  
Still no response.  
Seldes sighed. "We're not going to leave you here, so don't even entertain the thought."  
After a pause, Sugar turned to him. "Why must you always be so...." she trailed off.  
"So what?"  
"So....." she waved her hands erraticaly in Seldes' direction. "So...I don't know!" So....YOU!"  
"Just can't help it, I guess."  
Sugar shook her head. "Someday I'm going to figure out how you always manage to be so you." she warned as she headed outside to saddle Jack.  
  



	47. Chapter 46

  
November 23, 1800. 3:32 a.m.  
Alps Haven  
Amy paced around the foyer in agitation. Should she go and get them? It had been nearly two nights. But how? She didn't have a horse. And she wasn't a Gangrel who could run up and down a mountain without breaking a sweat. Maybe send the ghoul? She had walked all the way from Amsterdam, hadn't she?  
Just as she was resolving to send Ana down to Geneva after the others, she heard the unmistakable sound of hoofbeats on gravel. She ran out the front door faster than she had ever run in her life.  
"Carid! Michaela!" she cried as the two rode/ran up to the house. "Are the others with you?"  
"Yeah." the Tzimisce answered, swinging off her horse and tethering it to the railing in her usual manner.  
As if on cue, Sugar, Sharma, and Cathy rode up the gravel path.  
"The others are still a ways back." Cathy announced. "The carriage always takes forever."  
"I'm so glad you're all back!" Amy smiled, relieved. "The Society is in Geneva. According to my readings, it's a major European stronghold!"  
"No, REALLY?!" Carid's voice absolutely dripped with sarcasm.  
"You found them?!"  
"Actually, they found us." Michaela said darkly.   
"We have to do something, and fast." Carid informed her roomate. "There are NO vampires in that city. None whatsoever. The Society is at our back door."  
Amy looked utterly shocked.  
"Once the others get here, we have to get to work."  



	48. Chapter 47

  
  
November 23, 1800. 3: 45 a.m.  
sitting room  
Carleigh stood up from her chair as the last of the group filtered into the room. All fourteen Kindred, plus Ana, were here. They could begin.  
"Alright everyone." she began. "As you all know, we are in a dire situation..."  
"Can somebody besides Pederston lead the meeting?" Sugar asked the assembled. "I'm getting kind of sick of this..."  
Carleigh slapped her forehead in exasperation. "Fine. FINE. Someone else lead. I don't even care!" she collapsed back into her chair.  
Sugar suddenly realized everyone was looking at her. "Oh, am I supposed to do it?"  
"Well, we can't have me leading, can we?" Carleigh said sarcastically. "So go ahead, Ms. Kelly. If you have better ideas about how to run this."  
"Actually, I think I do!" Sugar bristled. She turned her attention to everyone else in the room. "Okay people. The Society is down the street. We're totally isolated, unprepared, and there are only fourteen of us against a city full of them. And before anyone reminds me, yes, they caught me. Yes, I was reckless. And no, I do not plan to make the same mistake. Moving on. We have nothing except ourselves and our own abilities against these guys. Anyone got any ideas at ALL?"  
"Well...." Mei spoke up after a brief pause. "We should probably send some scouts back to Geneva. Just to lay low and find some of their weaknesses and then exploit them and then take all their power and conquer the world and become dictators and.....sorry."  
Everyone stared.  
"Yes, well...." Sugar muttered.  
"Scouts would be a good idea, though." Seldes spoke up. "Strong as they are in Geneva, they must have some weakness."  
"Okay." Sugar shrugged. "And will you volunteer, Sel?"  
"Sure." the Nosferatu nodded. "If that's okay with you." he turned to Sharma.  
The Assamite nodded.  
"So I guess we're still traveling in our preassigned pairs then." Sugar observed. "That's probably a good idea. Okay, so Seldes and Sharma go to Geneva and check things out there. What do the rest of us do?"  
"I would reccomend training." Michaela spoke up from her corner by the window. "Practice our abilities. Refine them."  
"And we should start looking into information on the Society in general." Carid suggested. "Give us a better idea of what to expect."  
"Alrighty then!" Sugar clapped her hands once. "Everyone got an idea of what they're doing? If you're into physical combat, train, if you're into strategizing, study, and if you're into reconnasissance and have Disciplines like Obfuscate and Quietus, go to Geneva. Got it? Good. Meeting adjourned."  
"Well, that was quick." Carleigh muttered.  



	49. Chapter 48

  
  
November 27, 1800. 1: 22 a.m.  
front hall  
It had been four nights since the escape from Geneva. Sharma and Seldes had gone back to the city, while the others made to go about ither training or studying. And they had kept that up remarkably wel...for the first couple nights. Now Carleigh was clamoring about getting the house fixed up again, so quite a few members of the group had gone back to their pre-Geneva jobs. For the time being, anyway.  
"I've been thinking." Sugar said as she snapped part of the banister back into place.  
"Really?" Cathy laughed, driving another bolt into the banister.  
"Oh, shut up." Sugar said with no real malice. "I mean, I was thinking about the location of this place. The council was supposed to be able to track the Society, right?"  
"Yeah..."  
"So why put us around the corner from a Society stronghold?"  
"So...you're thinking this whole thing was doomed from day one?"  
"Yeah." Sugar said darkly.  
"But why?"  
"Why what?" Carid asked, carrying another pile of wood to the foot of the stairs.  
Sugar told her.  
"I'm with the Brujah...." Carid crossed her arms. "Why would they set us up? I mean, who are we to eliminate? Is anyone here that important to their clan?"  
"I don't know..." Sugar shook her head. Come to think of it, she didn't know much about any of the others. WAS there someone among them important enough that someone was going to these lengths to get rid of her or him? Micheala's sire had come over a thousand miles on foot to check on her safety....maybe it was her. But Mika didn't seem like someone important. And maybe a thousand miles wasn't as problematic if you were a Gangrel.  
The three of them stood there pondering the question in silence until a knock on the front door got their attention.   
They collectively froze in place.  
"Who the hell is that?!" Cathy whispered.  
"Quiet!" Carid hissed harshly.  
"Why are we freaking out?' Cathy asked straightening up. "It's probably just--" she was cut off as Sugar clamped a hand over her mouth.  
"Shut up!" Sugar hissed in the Brujah's ear. "If it was one of us they would have just walked in!"  
Carid's hand closed around a peice of wood that had been serated to a point for some reason. It wasn't her problem how the wood was cut, she just brought it in here. But still, this was lucky. She took an almost silent step forward.  
The knock sounded on the door again. Carid asked herself if she was being too paranoid. Then she remembered another one of her sire's famous platitudes: Paranoia is the key to survival. It made sense, especially with the Society of Leopold breathing down their necks. They may have been back to their old tasks, but that didn't mean there was any release of the tension that gripped every one of them.  
"HELLOOOOOOO!!!!!!" A voice Carid didn't recognize screamed from the other side of the oaken door. The Tzimisce looked over her shoulder at Sugar. The Ravnos looked as confused as she felt. A member of the Society would hardly scream a greeting. Come to think of it, a mamber of the Society probably wouldn't knock, either.  
Carid suddenly felt quite stupid.  
She crossed the foyer to the door. Might as well bite. But she held onto the makeshift stake, just in case.  
She slowly opened the door. Before her stood a young-looking girl with long blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, blue eyes, and a manaical grin.  
"Hi." the girl said, grinning even wider.  
"Hello...." Carid eyed her cautiously.  
"Is this where I'm supposed to be?" the girl asked, still grinning.  
"I...don't think so."  
The girl seemed confused. "This looks like where I'm supposed to be..." she looked around in every possible direction. "Or is there another big house in the mountains where I was supposed to go?" she looked at Carid as if the answer was written on the Tzimisce's face.  
Carid gave her an odd look. Who the hell was this girl? "Maybe you better come in..." she stepped aside and allowed the girl to enter.  
Sugar and Cathy rose to meet them as the two entered the foyer.  
"Who are you?" Cathy asked, getting right to the point.  
The girl grinned again...or still. "I'm Josephine. I'm a Malkavian. You can call me D."  
The three stared at her.  
"What did you just say your name was?" Sugar finally asked.  
"Josephine. But you can call me D."  
"D?"  
"Yep."  
"What does 'D' have to do with 'Josephine'?"  
"Nothing."  
"Then why?"  
"Why what?"  
"Why do you call yourself D if your name is Josephine?"  
"Why not?"  
Sugar sat down on the steps, looking dazed. "I'm getting a headache..." she moaned.  
"You're not the only one...." Carid muttered. "So...D...why are you here?"  
D (whose name was actually Josephine) turned to face her. "Because this is where I'm supposed to be....right?"  
"Well, then..." Carid rubbed her temples. "Who told you you were supposed to be here?"  
D stood there for a minute, considering. Finally, after much diliberation... "I think...it was the faeries. Or maybe it was those....other guys. The old ones. But I really think it was the faeries..."  
Carid ignored the comments on faeries. "Your elders sent you here?!"  
"I really think it was the faeries....."  
Carid turned to Sugar and Cathy, a look of urgency in her face. "As much as I HATE to sound like Carleigh...I think we need to get everyone in here."  
  
A few moments later, then entire group plus Ana was assembled in the front hall (Sugar would absolutely NOT allow everyone to meet in the sitting room again).  
"Do you bring news from the elders?" Carleigh asked D right off the bat. "Have they any instructions for us?"  
"I thought we weren't relying on them anymore!" Sobek protested.  
"That remains to be seen!" Carleigh glared at him.  
"Oh, SURE!" Courtney spat. "We'll be fine on our own, we can trust no one but each other, then the minute you get the idea that you're gonna be able to to get the oh-so-wonderful privledge of taking orders from your precious elders again, it all goes flying out the window!"  
"No kidding!" Cathy agreed angrily. "Maybe you're ready to lie down and be the doormat of every elder in sight, Ventrue, but you've got no right to make that choice for the rest of us!"  
"The council is DEAD, Carleigh!" Maria spoke gravely. "It makes no difference what the other elders have to say; we can't trust them! Or her!" she pointed to D.  
"Hey!" Michaela shouted over the chaos. "Will you all just shut up and stop jumping to conclusions?! We don't even know what she has to say yet!"  
"That's right." Amy assented. "For all we know, she could be a sign that the elders still support us."  
"That wasn't exactly what I meant..."  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"  
D's scream echoed through the foyer and shocked everyone into stunned silence.  
"Will you all stop talking about me like I'm not even HERE?!" she wailed. "It's really not NICE!"  
"Um.....we're sorry....."  
"Well, you should be."  
"Hi!" Alectz suddenly spoke up. "I'm a Malkavian!"  
"I'm a Malkavian too!" D cried happily. The two of them ran at each other and hugged like best friends reunited after several centuries.  
"Do you two know each other?" Carleigh asked, observing the rather weird yet touching scene.  
"Nope!" Alectz grinned.  
"But we're Malkavians!" D grinned as well.  
"Well...then..." the Ventrue looked quite confused.  
"Anyway, D." Amy was careful to directly address the new arrival. "What did the elders tell you when they sent you here?"  
"I still think the faeries sent me here, actually....."  
"Then what did the faeries tell you?" Amy was flexible.  
"They said to come here and join a bunch of people who aren't Malkavians. "But there's a Malkavian here after all!" she hugged Alectz again.  
The rest of the assembled exchanged a Look.   
"What does this mean?" Ben wondered.  
"Do the Malkavians still support us?" Carleigh asked no one in particular.  
"Did they forget about Alectz?" Mei suggested. "So they sent another representative?"  
"I feel so loved...." Alectz sniffled.  
"Maybe they were trying to send us extra support?"  
"Maybe they ARE offering their support..."  
"Maybe they just don't know what's going ON." Courtney rolled her eyes. "That's been known to happen too."  
"HAH!" D burst out, pointing an accusing finger at the Lasombra. "That's what they WANT you to think! WE know what's going on! YOU'RE the one running around chasing your non-existant tail! IF THE BRICK WALL CHASES YOU, WILL NOT YOU RUN AWAY!!!!!!????"  
Courtney took a step backwards.  
"Um....I think the important thing right now is to figure out what we do now." Maria suggested. "Should we send her back?"  
"There aren't supposed to be two of any clan here..." Sobek reminded them all.  
"But if we send her back...." Ben began. "She might tell someone we're here. Still alive."  
"Alive?"  
"Oh, you know what I mean!"  
"And if we keep her, they'll know SOMEONE is up here." Maria pointed out.  
"Hey, if they forgot about Alectz..." Amy shrugged. "These are Malkavians we're talking about."  
D turned to Alectz. "Now they're talking about both of us as if we're not here."  
"They do that sometimes..."  
"But if they do forget, then what?" Carleigh asked. "Are we just going to keep getting a new Malkavian every few weeks? We'll be overrun with kooks!"  
"I doubt it." Amy shook her head. "The Malkavians are part of the Camarilla. The justicars will find out they sent a second person. They won't allow it to happen again."  
"But is there a chance they'll come looking for D?"  
"Like they came looking for the rest of us, you mean?" Carid sneered.  
"So are we keeping her?"  
"Where do we put her?"  
"You people are very rude...." D muttered.  
"There's some extra space in the basement..." Amy suggested. "But it's right next to my workshop."  
"What about the attic?" Mei suggested.  
"There's no curtains up there." Carid reminded her.  
"So let's put some up!"  
"Where are we supposed to get the material, kiddo?!" the Tzimisce demanded. "We can't go back to Geneva!"  
"I'm not a kid!"  
"Right...."  
"D?" Michaela turned to the Malkavian. "Do you want to stay? You can go back, but if you do you can't tell anyone you've seen us."  
"Why not?"  
"To make a long story short, the council that set this up was murdered, we think our clans have turned against us, but we're fighting the Society of Leopold anyway and right now they've got a major stronghold in Geneva and they know we're here."   
"In other words, you're getting yourself involved in a hell of a mess." Carid summarized. "If you think you're up for it, we need all the help we can get."  
"Okay!" D grinned cheerfully. "I'll do it, but only if you guys promise not to talk about me when I'm standing right here."  
"All right, all right...." Carleigh sighed. "We won't do that."  
"Do you mind sleeping in the basement?" Ben asked, unable to imagine living down there. The three nights before they had obtained new curtains had been pure torture for him.  
"You have to stay out of my workshop." Amy said before D could answer. "There's a lot of very delicate equipment in there."  
"I like basements."  
"Stay out my workshop."  
"Fine!"  
"Can we assume this is settled?" Carleigh held up a hand.  
"Don't you think we should vote on this or something?" Mei suggested.  
The Ventrue sighed in exasperation. "Alright, fine, we'll vote. Everyone for D joining the team?" she looked around. "Alectz, Mei, Michaela, Ben, Maria, Amy, Cathy, Carid, Sugar, and myself." she ennumerated. "Against? Courtney and Sobek. Why?"  
"We don't know who she is. We don't know where she came from." Sobek answered for both of them.  
"And just how many of us know who all the rest of us are and where we all came from?" Carid demanded. "For all we know, Ana over there is a Nosferatu elder in disguise spying on us and planning on trapping us all." the ghoul looked shocked and a bit disturbed. "I don't know where YOU came from, Sobek. Maybe we should kick you off the team."  
"Okay, okay, you've made your point!" Courtney glared at the Tzimisce. "By the way, did the ghoul vote?"  
"I don't think so...." Carleigh glanced at Ana.  
"Good."  
"But what about Seldes and Sharma!" Ben suddenly exclaimed. "They're not here. Shouldn't they vote? Moreover, shouldn't they at least know what we're doing?!"  
"Unless you want to take the message down to Geneva yourself, Torrie, I don't think that's gonna happen." Sobek sneered.  
"Well, call this a guess in the dark, but I have a feeling Seldes would be for and Sharma would be against." Sugar smirked.  
"That's still the majority in favor." Carleigh said resolutely. "So it's settled."  
"Yay! I'm in!" D jumped up and down happily. "Are there rats in the basement?!" she asked excitedly.  
"My kind of Cainite..." Mika smiled.  



	50. Chapter 49

November 27, 1800. 2:01 am  
Geneva by Night  
Seldes stood-or rather, squatted-behind a smokestack on the roof of Carleigh's old factory. It was lucky she had had this built here. Best vantage point in the city. He adjusted his telescope to focus on the front of the house they assumed to be the Society's stronghold. The house where Sugar had been captured.  
And to think he had wondered whether or not he would need this instrument.  
The house was silent and dark. But of course that meant nothing. They could be meeting around the back, where trees obstructed Seldes' veiw, or they could be in the basement, or even worse, they could have changed bases of operation!   
He sighed and closed up the telescope. He had to get closer; that was all there was to it. Just as he was planning which rooftop to jump onto, an almost undetectable sound of a window opening got his attention.   
He froze, alowing all his senses to go to alert. It could be a human assasin. Then again, it could also be a vampire assasin. But the latter was supposed to be here. Sharma should be back by now...but wouldn't she have used the door?  
'Of course she wouldn't use the door, you imbecile.' Seldes mentally chastised himself. 'Why would she use the door? That would be too normal.'  
He climbed down through the roof hatch. Sure enough, Sharma had infiltrated the factory through a second story window. She sat on one of the long tables, wiping her sword with a rag.  
"Hello." Seldes called. "Run into trouble?"  
The Assamite didn't even look up from her work. "No."  
"Then...why are you cleaning your sword?" Seldes indicated the sword.  
This time Sharma looked at him as if he had asked the most ridiculous question in the world. Finally, after a long pause,  
"It is a scimtar."  
"A rose by any other name...."  
"What?"  
"Nevermind." Seldes shook his head. "So, did you make it to the house?"  
"Of course." Sharma was back to polishing.  
Seldes stared at her for a few seconds, waiting for her to continue. She didn't.  
"And?" he prodded.  
She looked up. "And nothing. The house is deserted."  
"Did you get in?"  
"Yes."  
"Well, did you find anything that might indicate where they went?"  
"No."  
"Well, what DID you find?"  
"Nothing of consequence."  
"They took everything with them?"  
"Assumably."  
"Do you have any idea where they went?"  
"No."  
"Okay..." Seldes sighed, massaging his temples. These 'debriefing' sessions with Sharma were always so excruciating. Monosyllabic answers, no freely volunteered details...anything he wanted to know he had to ask for specifically. She could be utterly maddening. It wasn't like he was asking her the secrets of her clan leaders!   
"Alright." he said in an attempt to get back to business. "So the Society has relocated. They could be anywhere, with this whole city under their control. We have to find them." he looked at his partner. No reaction. "Are you listening?"  
No reaction.  
"Sharma!"  
She looked up at him as if he had interrupted something important.  
"Okay, look." Seldes crossed his arms. "I know you would rather be with your own clan right now. So do I. And I appriciate the fact that you would like nothing better than to go back to India and forget all about the rest of us. But you can't do that right now. You have to understand that. And while you are understanding that, try to understand also that we need to make the best of the situation we find ourselves in. That means you and I have to work together." he paused, searching her face for some middle ground. There was none. "I'm not asking you to turn your back on your clan or betray the things you care about. I'm just asking you to work with me. There's no way any of us can be sure of anything anmore. We need each other. I know that's kind of an abhorrant concept for someone like you; to have to depend on other clans, but you have no other choice. Once we get all this mess sorted out, you can return to your people. But we're never going to get it sorted out unless we work together." he paused. "You're not listening at all, are you?" he groaned.  
Sharma didn't look up from her scimtar.  
"What are you trying to do, rub the metal off?!" Seldes exclaimed in frustration.  
No response.  
"Fine. I'm going to go look for some clue to the Society's whereabouts. You don't have to come. We wouldn't want to get your sword dirty!" He clamored down to the stairs in a huff.  
"Scimtar." Sharma said flatly just before the Nosferatu was out of earshot.  
"Whatever!" Seldes shouted back.  
He couldn't take it. This was just to much. He tried to be nice, he tried to be understanding, but even HIS patience had limits! Why was she treating him with such cold indifference? Was it just because he was a member of another clan?  
"I try to talk to her. I try to extend an olive branch. I try to make this partnership work, and she won't even acknowledge my existance! Oh, unless I call her stupid sword by the wrong name. Then she'll say something."  
He was in such a state he almost walked out of the factory without activating his mask.  
"Ack!" he exclaimed, jumping back from the door. "I really need to calm down....before I scare some small children." he sighed.  
After he gave himself a nice dose of Obfuscate, he exited the building once more.  
Seldes strolled down the street, trying to look as normal and casual as it was possible to look while walking around town at two in the morning. There had to be a better way to do this.  
He stopped in the middle of a deserted street and tapped his foot on the ground. There. Thank goodness Geneva was a city equipped with a sewar system. Now he just had to find the nearest access to the underground.  
Luckily, there was a large pipe portruding from the ground in an alleyway not half a block from there. He dropped down into the familiararity of darkness and grime, but didn't abandon his mask just yet. He didn't know when he would need to resurface.  
This arrangement worked much better. Above ground, he could be easily spotted. Even if he had used Cloak of Shadows or another Obfuscate technique, there was no way he could know whether or not the Geneva Society had members with the ability to see past vampiric Disciplines. Most likely, they did. How else could they have become strong enough to drive every vampire out of the city?   
With that in mind, the sewers had clearly been the best choice. His eyes adjusted to the darkness easily. If he remembered correctly, the Society's base had been to the northwest of here, and the northwest was....that way.  
As he walked through the grime coverd stone tunnels, his mind drifted back to the earlier scene with Sharma. He just couldn't figure her out. From what he had seen, nearly all of the others were at least trying to get along. Not necessarily succeeding, particularly in the cases of Carid and Amy, but at least they weren't being dileberately uncooperative...all the time. Sharma, on the other hand....so far, she had spoken only to him and to Michaela Greywauld.  
Seldes sighed. He of all people knew what it was like to be seperated from your people, particularly when your people were very clan-oriented. The Nosferatu dealt with other clans, but in the end, most Nosferatu trusted only their own kind. He himself wasn't among these, but even so. The Assamites never dealt with other clans. Except of course to kill them. But then, some said the Nosferatu never dealt with other clans except to spy on them.  
Now that he thought about it, the Assamites and the Nosferatu really had a lot in common. Clan-oriented lifestyle, relative seperation from other clans, and of course a debilitating weakness.   
The wheels in Seldes' head began turning. It could very well be that Sharma felt she had nothing in common with the other clans. Chances were she'd spent her whole unlife in the Middle East and never so much as spoken to a non-Assamite. Therefore, maybe by pointing out the similarities between their clans, he could start to chip away a little of her shell.  
He stood under another large hole in the ground now; this one fairly close to the Society's base of operations. He would save congratulating himself for his brilliant people skills until later. Right now he had to get to the work Sharma should have already done.....yet refused to tell him about.  
With practiced ease, he lept up the pipe and landed noiselessly on the cobblestone street. Once there, he quickly activated Cloak of Shadows. He was willing to risk it for such a short distance.  
He slipped through the shadows lining the street and came up alongside the burnt-out front of the house. Considering this area hadn't been fixed up at all, it was easy to believe that the Society had just switched locations. Almost too easy to believe.  
He crept into the remnants of the parlor. Nothing here but ashes and assorted lumber. The rest of the ground floor was almost as bad. Messy and deserted. As if everyone had left in a panic.   
From what Seldes had heard about the chaos Michaela, Sugar, and Courtney had caused, that may have been exactly what had happened.  
Further down that hall, he inspected the study, finding nothing but a few scraps of paper in the fireplace. However, on closer inspection these proved to be nothing more than pathetic attempts at a decoy. Obviously, the Society knew about the techniques required to read a peice of paper even after it had been burnt to a crisp. What they did not seem to be familiar with was the psychic art of psychometry. That is, the ability to decipher an object's history by tuning into the energies surrounding it. Their carelessness was surprising to say the least. Psychometry was practiced among human mages. Either they were truly panicked beyond all rational thought or....  
They deliberately planted a decoy paper that they knew he would know was a decoy so he would think they were stupid so they could catch him off guard because the decoy paper was a decoy for something else completely!  
Seldes repeated that stetement in his head a couple times.  
I sound like a conspiracy theorist Malkavian. he concluded after a moment's thought. But even so. It was better to be paranoid than staked.  
He placed the peice of paper back on the hearth in the exact spot in which he had found it. Nothing valuable on it anyway, and it was best to not let anyone find clues that he'd been there.  
Seldes slipped out of the room and crept up the staircase. The top floor was slightly less destroyed than the downstairs, but it was still far from tidy.  
This really was a nice house. One of those very old ones that didn't have a ceiling between the first floor and the rafters. What a pity it had been put to such nefarious use.  
Suddenly, his ears perked up. Was that....? He turned slowly as another small noise emitted from below him.  
Seldes forced himself to remain calm. It could very well be Sharma. Maybe she felt guilty about brushing him off earlier.  
Now there are only two things wrong with that idea. a little voice in the back of his mind chided. One, she wouldn't make any noise. And two, it's really very unlikely that she should feel guilty about anything!  
Seldes could definitely hear footsteps now. He had to think! These people had staked Sugar Kelly....they would make mincemeat out of him! Physical Disciplines were not his strong suit. He looked around desperately. Windows? None in the hallway, and he couldn't risk going into one of the rooms. Doors always creaked like the devil whenever you really needed them to be silent. It was a natural law.  
Suddenly, it hit him. Maybe he couldn't get away, but he did have one advantage. These people were probably not looking for him. So he could just hide. No problem at all.  
He jumped up into the rafter much as he had jumped out of the sewar. Silently and easily. Once he got there, though, it was another story.  
His legs teetered on the crossbeam. It wasn't nearly wide enough....not to mention his center of gravity was perpetually off balance. That wasn't a problem when hiding in small dark holes. On the ground. But up here, when he actually had to balance....it was a bit of a problem. He considered straightening up, just to be better centered, but then remembered how much noise his spine made whenever he tried to displace it like that.  
He grabbed onto one of the vertical beams. It looked like he'd just have to hold on tight and hope the humans didn't stay long.  
"Where is it, Papa?!" a childish voice cried. Seldes nearly fell over in shock. They had children involved in this?! Courtney had been teasing Sugar about a little girl, but it seemed so unbelieveable...  
A small blonde girl, looking no older than nine or ten, hurried into the hallway, accompanied by two grown men.  
"Hurry up, Helena!" one of the men said harshly. "We have far more important matters to attend to right now then the whereabouts of your necklace!"  
The child look hurt. "But Mama gave it to me before the vampire killed her!" she wailed. "I can't leave here without it!"  
Leave here?? Seldes' eyes widened. Was the Society abbandoning the city? Or just this location in the city?  
The little girl spun around and ran into one of the rooms. So her mother was killed by a vampire. That would explain such hostility at such a young age.  
The man-her father, Seldes assumed- impatiently tapped his foot against the floorboards. "What kind of information have you gathered on the new fiends that invade our city?" he turned to the other man.  
His companion looked slightly uncomfortable. "Not much, sir. Yet." he added quickly. "They seem to appear out of the sky, and disappear into the hills just as quickly."  
"Why have you not followed them?!"  
The clearly younger man looked flustered. "S-sir..we do not have the supplies...the men...the-the ability to scale the Alps! WE have not the supernatural powers of the fiends!"  
Seldes was so intent on memorizing the conversation that he didn't realize....  
All of a sudden, he felt his cramped leg slip out from under him completely. Luckily, the sound of him gasping in shock and grabbing the vertical beam with all his might was covered by Helena slamming the door to the first room and entering the one across the hall.  
This was not good, this was not good, this was not good! He could feel his other leg giving way, and because of his position, he was unable to pull his other leg back up! Number one, he was missing the verbal beating Helena's father was giving his subordinate. Number two, if either of them looked up right now....and had the ability of Heightened Senses....  
At least there were only two of them....and they didn't look armed. He might be able to take them. If he recovered his wits in time after falling headfirst to the ground.  
He knew he was falling. He also knew that these men were not going to leave between now and him hitting the ground. So it was better to just bite the bullet, jump down on them, and make a run for it before they figured out what had happened.  
It was a risky plan. Celerity was another Discipline he lacked skill in. Oh why oh why hadn't he practiced physical Disicplines more?! Granted, he never would have forseen this situation, but even so....  
Helena ran in and out of another room. As she darted across the hallway, the two men paused to give her annoyed and impatient glances.  
Now! Seldes' mind screamed. He braced his still partially stable leg to jump....  
But the tightening of the muscle sent the twisted leg slightly backwards. Backwards and off the beam.  
Before Seldes' mind could so much as register the fact that he was falling backwards, a strong hand snatched his sleeve. The Nosferatu hung, suspended by his arm and completely stunned.  
"I found it!" Helena's small but shrill voice cried and the girl scurried into the hallway. She clung to a jade pendant strung on a leather cord as if her life depended on it.  
"About time!" her father grunted, turning to leave. "Come, quickly! The streets are never safe at night, fiends or no fiends. Especially for little girls!"  
His daughter sent a glare that could have frozen hell over at his back, but she obediantly followed him and his companion down the stairs and out of the house.  
Seldes remained completely still, albeit in an uncomfortable position, for several moments after the slam of what was left of the door was heard from below. The Nosferatu was still at a total loss to exactly what had just happened. Not to mention he just couldn't seem to stop blinking his eyes.  
But the sudden pain of being yanked upwards by his arm forced his eyelids to cease and desist. He attempted to twist around and look upwards, but all he managed to do was dislocate his shoulder. He bit back a small scream. It wasn't so bad....really....  
After what was only a few seconds but seemed like an eternity of agony, Seldes found himself deposited, in a sitting position this time, on a slightly higher beam.  
The Nosferatu forced his eyes to focus. He looked around, the wrong way at first, but when he turned his head to the left he found himself staring at a pair of white-clad kneecaps.  
He looked upwards and into the dark face and darker eyes of Sharma Hassam.  
The Assamite stood beside him on the beam, as coordinated and stable as any circus rope-walker.  
Seldes winced as his shoulder spasmed again. Closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, he grabbed the displaced joint with his other hand and with a sickening crunch, snapped his shoulder back into place.  
"Ow." He stated calmly. He looked up at the expressionless visage of his rescuer. "Well, thank you for catching me...I think. Can we go home now?"  
Minutes later, the two Cainites were in the sewars Seldes had discovered and heading back to the factory.  
"I mean it, you know." Seldes said, slightly breathless, as he tried to keep pace with his partner. Walking on your hands was not an easy business when your shoulder had just been twisted out of place. "Thank you. You probably saved my life. Just about anything on the ground could have been used as stake, and if I had fallen-which I was going to, I'm not all that coordinated, obviously...." Seldes voice trailed off. He knew he was babbling. A sure sign that he had actually been scared. But as soon as he stopped speaking, his partner stopped dead ten feet ahead of him.  
"I am quite aware of the potential dangers of that area." Sharma said with absolutely no expression, not facing Seldes. "And I am also aware of your shortcomings as a warrior." The Nosferatu flinched, but he knew full well it was the truth. "Which is why," Sharma continued, "that particular reconnasissance mission was assingned to me."  
Seldes just about fell over. "Yes, Sharma, it WAS assigned to you!" he gasped, throughly exasperated. "But if you're just going to sit there and polish your SWORD and not tell anybody what you discovered on that mission, your reconnaissance is no good to anybody! Now as I said before, I know you're used to working alone, but surely you understand the need for cooperation! Does it really matter that much that I'm not a-"  
"Stop." Sharma calmly but firmly cut him off. "Stop scrutinizing me." She turned to face Seldes at last.  
"I don't need you to tell me what my motivations, beliefs, and understandings are. You think you understand and interpret others so well. You know nothing of my life or unlife. You know nothing of ME. You do not understand me. You do not indentify with me. If you knew everyting there was to me, you would want nothing to do with me."  
"That's not--"  
"Do not contradict a statement when you have no knowledge of its source. Did I not just say you know nothing of me? How do you know what I am guilty of?" she paused. "Your clan is an amiable one, Nosferatu. But centuries as the brokers of information have given you the mistaken conviction that you know all. You do not." With that, the Assamite turned and continued down the catacombs.  
"Sharma!" Seldes cried, hurrying to catch up to her. With much effort, he overtook the girl (who, luckily, had too much dignity to run from him) and scrambled in front of her, blocking her path.  
She glared at him, but Seldes would not be stared down.  
"Look, you're right. I don't know you. I don't know where you came from, I don't know what motivates you. I've tried to get to know you, Sharma. But you won't let me. It seems like you're hiding behind every Assamite sterotype ever created. Why is that? I've been trying to figure it out ever since I met you. Why don't you want anyone to know you? Do you think everyone will hate you?"  
You don't know me, either. You seem to think I'm a lot more innocent than I actually am. You think I haven't seen the worst of what people can do, kine and Kindred alike?"  
Listen, like it or not, you and I are stuck with each other. We are going to have to at least understand each other, if not actually know one another."  
Sharma let her head drop forward in a gesture of resignation. Maybe know they could at least talk, or so Seldes hoped.  
"So?" he prodded.  
"So...." the Assamite echoed after a moment's pause. Unexpectedly, she dropped down into a squat thart brought her almost eye level with the Nosferatu.  
"You say you have been trying to 'figure me out' ever since we met.."  
Seldes nodded slowly.  
"Stop." she said simply. "Trying to 'figure' your partner out is no way to begin such a relationship. First, learn your partner's skills, strengths, and weaknesses in battle and tactics." she stood.  
"A deeper understanding will come." she finished, and slowly walked around Seldes and further down the sewar.  
Seldes remained where he was for a few moments, utterly speechless for the first time in his life. Lucky you, Seldes. A voice int he back of his mind said. You've just been given a glimpse of Assamite teamwork strategy.  
He shook his head is fascination. Sharma was quite a.....girl, woman, Assamite, Kindred, moving organism....whatever she was. He resolved to play this game her way. For the time being. She would have to learn his way eventually. But as she said, a deeper understanding would come.  
He scuttled down the dark caves after her.  



	51. Chapter 50

November 27, 1800. 3:08 a.m.  
the house in the alps  
Michaela lay sprawled out on the back porch, gazing up at the gray-black sky. It should have snowed by now. For pity's sake, they were in the Swiss Alps! Normally you couldn't see the ground between October and May.  
There was something wrong in the air....  
The sound of hysterical laughter from above snapped the Gangrel out of her reverie. Wrinkling her brow in confusion, she stood up. That sounded too close to be coming from any of the bedrooms. She took a few steps forward into the yard, then turned to look at the wall and roof above.  
Alectz and D stood on the small awning that seperated the ground and first floors as far as walls went. The wooden structure wasn't even wide enough to block the porch from the sky, and the two Malkavians were balanced precariously and dangerously close to to the edge. And laughing as if it was the most amusing thing in the world.  
Mika shook her head in disbelief. "Alectz! D!" she yelled. "What are you doing?! How did you GET there?!"  
"We FLEEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!" D cried elatedly, throwing her arms out as if to take off and nearly taking the other Malkavian's head off in the process.  
"GAH!" Carleigh suddenly burst out the back door. She ran to Mika's side and glared up at the two nutcases. "I thought I heard you two! Get down from there before you get yourselves injured!"  
"Awww, why?" Alectz whined.  
"Because we don't have the blood resources to heal you should you fall!"  
"Oh don't worry about us." D interjected, suddenly calm. "Yeah. We're indestructible. Didn't you know that?" Alectz added, equally calm.  
Carleigh stared.  
"All Malkavians are indestructable." Michaela smirked. "It's common knowledge, Carleigh." that said, the Gangrel turned towards the woods and sauntered off.  
"See? SHE understands!" Alectz cried, pointing erratically at Mika's departing back.  
Carleigh held the sides of her head as if her skull was going to explode. "Get down from there, will you? Why must you two be so troublesome?"  
"WE'RE troublesome?!" D pouted. "You're the one who's always showing up to ruin our fun!"  
"She has a funness sense." Alectz informed her clanmate. "It picks up on funness from really far away so she can hurry and stop it."  
Carleigh nearly screamed. "You weren't this bad before, Alectz! You were bad, sure, but ever since D showed up....does the Curse of Malkav grow stronger when bearers of it are gathered together or what?!"  
"Oh, you should be at our Malkavian Meetings."  
"I guess that answers that..." the Ventrue muttered. "Fine. Stay up there. Break your skulls. See if I care!" she stomped back to the porch.  
"But we're INDESTRUCTIBLE!!!!!!" D screamed after her.  
Carleigh slammed the porch door.  
"Well she's no fun." D crosed her arms.  
"Don't blame her. She's a Ventrue. They're not allowed to be fun."  
"How sad."  
"Yeah."  
"What are you guys doing?"  
The two Malkavians looked down at the sound of the voice. Ben stood on the half dead grass looking up at them and holding a broom.  
"We're playing!" D grinned.  
"Do you wanna play?!" Alectz asked cheerfully.  
Ben smiled sadly. "Oh, sure, I'd like to. But Carid refuses to clean this mess up," he gestured toward the large pile of sawdust on the ground a few feet away, "And I want to put some bulbs in the ground there."  
"But it's winter."  
"That's actually when you're supposed to plant this particular bush. Before the first frost. And since the frost doesn't seem to be coming at all this year....."  
"What weird bush....." Alectz muttered.   
"I like it!" D chirped in conclusion. "Come on, let's go see what's on the OTHER side of the house!"  
"YEAH!"  
The two of them took flying leaps off the roof, miraculously landed on their feet, and took off around the side of the house.  
Ben shook his head in amusement as he watched them go. But his happy expression faded when his gaze rested again upon the task before him. Stupid Tzimisce. Couldn't even clean up after herself.  
He picked up a small box beside the porch. Well, he could just sweep the dust into the box a little at time and remove it that way. He had no idea where he was going to put it, but he would think about that later. Ben walked up to the pile and began scooping sawdust as carefully as he possibly could. He wanted no more of this junk on his clothes than was absolutely unavoidable. Yet that looked as though that would be more than he had wished.  
"What in the name of Osiris are you doing?"  
Ben yelped and jumped, dumping the half full box of sawdust all over himself.  
Sobek, who had just come out the back door, laughed in cruel amusement at the Toreador's predicament.  
Ben felt tears of embarassment and anger jump to his eyes, but he forbid them to fall with all the force in his small body. No way was he letting this horrible snake see him cry.  
"Wh-What do you WANT, Sobek?!" he stuttered angrily.  
"Pederston's on the warpath. Something about the Malks." the Setite told him, a grin still plastered on his face. "So I came out here. A good choice, too. Such prime entertainment." he chuckled once more.  
Ben gritted his teeth. This-this-horrible person was supposed to be his partner?! It just wasn't fair. Why couldn't he have been partnered with Seldes and have the Assamite stuck with Sobek? She looked like she could take him.  
"Anyway, you didn't answer my question." Sobek leaned against the railing with an obnoxious smirk. "Whatever are you doing?"  
"Ben raised his chin defiantly. "I'm cleaning up this mess so I can plant my garden, for your information." he sniffed.  
The Setite arched an eyebrow. "You're dumber than you look, Torrie. Anything you plant now will be frozen and dead by next week."  
Now it was Ben's turn to issue a superior attitude. "Shows what you know about gardening. It just so happens that these plants are meant to be put into the ground before the first frost."  
"They're meant to freeze over winter?"  
"What do you know about it, Setite?!" Ben glared. "Though I'm not surprised. All you know about living things is how to poison them!"  
Sobek didn't even flinch at the insult. "That's all living things are good for, little Torrie." he sneered. "If your clan's blood didn't prevent your brain from functioning, you might understand that." With that, he jumped over the porch railing and circled around the side of the house in the direction the Malkavians had gone.  
Ben stood there, seething in anger. That-that-that....SNAKE!  
He took a few deep breaths. He needed to calm down. Losing his temper would only make the cruel Setite laugh harder. He had to stay calm and composed. That was the key.  
He sighed heavily and attempted to brush some of the sawdust off his shirt. Once it became clear that there was nothing more he could do in that area, he picked up the fallen box and broom and returned to his work.  
Sobek was so mean. Why did he have to be so mean? Was it just beacuse he was a Setite? Hah. Ben could already hear Seldes contradicting that and admonishing him for generalizing.  
Thinking of his friend created another sadness within him. The two of them had divided up the yard pretty exactly, which was why Ben couldn't just put his plants somewhere other than where this dust heap lay. But that wasn't what bothered him about Sel's absence. He missed the Nosferatu's calming effect. Arguing with Sobek (a nightly event, since they shared a room) was never quite so bad if he could just run across the hall and rant to Seldes about what an awful person Sobek was. But Sel was gone with his cold Assamite partner to Geneva. That worried Ben too. That area was anything but safe.  
Fate was so cruel. Why was it that wonderful, kind, understanding people like Seldes had to be so....well, to put it bluntly, so physically unattractive and awful, mean, nasty, generally evil people like Sobek were so...exotically gorgeous.  
Ben's face turned bright red the minute that thought appeared of it's own accord in his head. Sobek, gorgeous?! Yeah, right! Like he was really interested in Sobek. Well, okay, maybe he was rather handsome....but that was easily counteracted by the distinct lack of redeeming personality traits!  
Oh, is it now? A rebellious voice in the back of his mind asked. If personality mattered so much more than looks to you, why aren't you intrested in Seldes? Ben winced. He was victim to his Toreador blood after all. Seldes was his best friend, but he could never be anything but friends with him.  
Okay, fine. he thought So looks do matter. But that DOESN'T mean personality doesn't! Physical qualities aside, Sobek was the LEAST attractive person Ben had ever met!  
  
  



	52. Chapter 51

November 27, 1800. 11:43 p.m.  
Closed out factory in Geneva  
Seldes watched silently as Sharma went through a series of motions which rivaled the Royal Ballet in grace and agility. Hard to believe this was actually a form of battle training.  
Finally, she sank into a kneeling position and was still. Seldes didn't even breathe. Of course, he hadn't for a while, but this time he paid attention to it.  
When she at least stood up and set her scimitar down on the nearest table, he felt he could safely assume she was done.  
"I know we're only supposed to be talking about fighting and stuff..." he began. The Assamite glanced over at him. Oh wow, he had been acknowledged. "But I have to ask..." he continued. "Why did you come after me last night? Didn't I prove myself unworthy or something by going into a situation I couldn't handle?"  
If Sharma had been anyone other than herself, she would have rolled her eyes. But seeing as how she wasn't anyone but herself, her face remained expressionless.   
"Defending one's allies, even the wayward ones, is an obligation of honor." she finally answered.  
"Oh." Seldes deflated slightly. He had hoped his team unity talk had gotton to her SOMEhow....well, maybe it had and she just wasn't admitting it.  
"Well, anyway, moving on." he hopped up onto a sewing table. "The Society. I assume you're willing to discuss them now?" when they had returned the previous night, Sharma had spent the rest of time until daybreak polishing her scimitar AGAIN and being totally deaf to Seldes' pleas that they compare notes on the Society. He was beginning to think the scimtar thing was some sort of ritual....  
"........Very well." Sharma finally conceded.  
"Okay!" Seldes exclaimed triumphantly. "Well, first of all, we know they've found a new base of operations in the city. I think finding it should be our primary focus right now, since we can't do anything to them until we know where they are." Sharma said nothing, so he continued. "I'm thinking we should search the city on foot in the early evening. That way, we can mingle with the humans still on the streets and perhaps come across one of the members. I remember some of their faces, particularly the two I saw last night and-"  
"The girl." Sharma interrupted.  
"Yes, I was just getting to her. She'll probably be the easiest to find and follow. She's far too young to know any True Faith Discipline to the point of profeciency..."  
"Don't be so certain."  
"I know, but you have to admit she'd be less of a threat than an adult." Sharma made no objection. "We could simply follow her-"  
"Bring her here." Sharma interrupted for the third time.  
"What?"  
"Bring her here. A child will break more easily under questioning than an adult."  
Seldes' eyes widened in shock. "Wait a minute. You mean... are you suggesting we TORTURE her?!"  
This time, Sharma looked straight at him, clearly surprised. "Of course. Was that not your intention?"  
"NO!" the Nosfertu exclaimed, shaking his head vigorously. "We are not torturing anybody! Least of all a little girl!"  
The Assamite's brow knit in annoyance. "How do you plan to extract information then? They will not volunteer it freely."  
"Oh for the love of....I may not be any good in a battle, but I'm proud to say I don't have to resort to torture to gain information! I only meant we should follow her back to their base in the hope that she would be less able to detect our presence. From there we can get the information required to defeat them ourselves. For goodness' sake, Sharma! Don't you think one of their members being tortured and possibly killed might do something like attract their attention and put them on their guard?!"  
"They are already on their guard!" Sharma spat, showing the first sign of any emotion Seldes had ever seen in her.  
"Well they don't need to be even MORE on their guard!"  
"Are you so weak-stomached that you cannot abide the sight of blood?" Sharma snapped in something resembling a taunting tone.  
"No, I'm too much of a bleeding heart!" Seldes freely admitted. "And here's one thing you can learn about me, Sharma! I do not torture, I do not kill without necessity, and I do not pick on kids, no matter what organisations they're involved in!"  
The Assamite grunted and lifted her sword off the table. She took a few practice slashes in the air, apparantly to calm herself, and placed it back down.  
"Anyway...." Seldes muttered. "Let's explore another line, shall we?" Once again, no voiced objection.  
"This may be gettting a little ahead of ourselves, but do you have any idea how we're going to go about attacking these people?"  
"Yes."  
There was a pause.  
"So are you going to tell me what it is?"  
Sharma turned to face him once more. "They are a large group. We are a small one. There is only one way for a small group to destroy a larger one."  
"And that is?"  
"Don't you know? To surround them."  
Seldes frowned. "But remember, these people drove a whole community of Kindred out of this city. I'm not sure such a simple method...."  
"Do you actually think the humans took up stakes and torches and chased the kafir out of the city? That's impossible."  
"We would like to think that, but the vampires ARE gone."  
"Have you such an inadequate grasp of politics?"  
"What does politics have to do with this?!"  
"Politics are the destroyers of nations. The kine came here and, most likely, pitted each clan against the others through covert political operations. That done, no clan could attack the Society because they were too busy fighting all the other clans and probably even parts of their own clans. Most likely they never even knew the Society was behind it until the Cainites of this city became so fragmented that the kine picked them off, one at a time, leaving each clan to blame another for every death. The Kindred did most of the work for their own destruction."  
Seldes stared at her. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Why hadn't he seen it before? It was the only logical explanation.  
"The one weapon we have against them here is that we are united." Sharma continued. "All we have to do is surround them in one place, and they will fall easily to what you call a simple method."  
"So what do you suggest?"  
"We know they meet in houses. Houses burn easily."  
Seldes flinched.  
"It is simple. With ourselves as a new threat, no doubt the kine will call a meeting of all their members as soon as another large disruption is made. All of them in one house."  
Seldes nodded slowly. Her intention was clear. He didn't like it. But it truly seemed to be the only way. "So far, they've only seen Michaela, Courtney, and Sugar."  
"It is better that they think there are only three."  
"Right. Their guard won't be as high." Seldes jumped off the table. "Well, then, we'll be needing the others, won't we?"  
Sharma nodded. "We will find their location tomorrow night. Then we will bring the others."  



	53. Chapter 52

November 29, 1800. 4:56 a.m.  
the house in the alps  
"GET OUUUUUUUT!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
Carleigh's head jerked up in surprise just in time to see Carid come stumbling backwards across the hall and almost down the stairs. The Tzimisce grabbed onto the banister to steady herself and stared in the direction she had come with an expression of shock and anger even as the sound of a slamming door could be heard throughout the whole house.  
The Ventrue gazed up with a smirk. "So, she finally kicked you out, did she?"  
Carid's neck snapped to the left to look straight at Carleigh with murder in her eyes. The Ventrue's smirk just grew larger as she sauntered into the sitting room.  
Carid snarled, utterly enraged. The fact that the Tremere was infuriating was nothing. The fact that she had managed to throw her out.......Now that was just beyond all endurance. Carid threw herself off the banister and stormed back in the direction of her room.  
"POLGARAN!!!!!!!!!!" she howled, grabbing the doorknob with every intention of ripping the whole wall down. But a sudden shock to her hand made her recoil. How dare she?! Put up some absurd magic around the door...! Carid braved a second shock and kicked the door with all her might before turning and storming downstairs and out the front door.  
Once outside, she picked up a large rock and hurled it into the trees with all the strength of her fury, letting out a roar equal to that of a lupine. So enraged was she that she almost didn't notice the fact that the rock made no crash upon hitting the ground. However, the fact dawned on her when the next noise she heard was not the sound of a rock falling, but the sound of someone coming out of the bushes.  
Michaela Greywaould emerged from the underbrush, tossing the rock Carid had hurled up and down in her hand. "Bad night, Dvorak?" she asked calmly, before tossing the rock back to the Tzimisce.  
Carid barely caught it, more than a little flustered. "I, um, I didn't hit you, did I?" she asked nervously, her rage at Amy suddenly the furthest thing from her mind.  
"No." the Gangrel said simply.   
"Sorry...."  
"With a howl like that you should consider a career in lupine hunting." Mika smirked before turning away from the Tzimisce and going into the house.  
The minute Carid heard Mika close the door behind her, she collapsed on her face.  
"Why?" she moaned into the dirt. "Why me?" It was so horribly ironic. Get mad at Amy, throw a rock into the forest, and come inces from braining the one person you would have liked to make a half-decent impression on. Lovely. Just wonderful. She had half a mind to just lie there and let the sun fricasse her.  
The sound of hoofbeats induced her to look up. She saw Sharma's horse coming up the road, carrying its owner and a Nosferatu who looked like he was holding on for dear unlife.  
"Hi." She said as soon as they were in earshot.  
"Are you alright, Carid?" Seldes asked, jumping off the horse.  
"Yeah. Great. Wonderful. Never been better."  
"Ookay, I won't ask."  
"Thank you."  
"Are the others still up?" Seldes asked, wisely changing the subject.  
"I think everyone's going in about now...." Carid told him, picking herself up. "Why? Have we devised a way to kill the troublesome humans?"  
"Yes." Sharma joined the conversation.  
"We need to make our report and tell you our....well, Sharma's idea." Seldes said. "We may be able to take Geneva back within the week if we work fast."  
"A fight? Please? Please say this plan involves a fight?" Carid pleaded.  
"Of course." Sharma aswered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
"YES!" the Tzimisce crowed in triumph. "Finally!" she grabbed Seldes' arm and began dragging him towards the house. "Come on, come on, let's find everyone!"  



End file.
